Where the Land Records Are Kept

NAMED GAPS, WITH THEIR SETTLERS

• The Range 4 East surveyor (GAP stands). The deputy surveyor, contract and plat-approval date for Township 37 North, Range 4 East (and Range 3 East) were not obtainable — the General Land Office survey search is session-gated. Settlers: the GLO plat images for the two townships, and the Indiana State Archives' GLO plat maps and field notes.
• GAP-O1-7, Penn's first entries, sharpened. The office sequence and the books' named entries are printed in the market article; the entry-by-entry pull was defeated by the same session gate and an unreachable Indiana Digital Archives. Settlers: the BLM tract books for T37N R3E/R4E and the Archives' Fort Wayne and LaPorte–Winamac tract-book indexes (pre-August-1833 Penn entries in the Crawfordsville-district index).
• The 1817 line at Range 4 East, to survey tolerance. Its latitude here is derived (state line minus ten miles) and cross-checked within 0.07 mile against the line's LaPorte County marker; the verdict's 2.5-mile margin makes the conclusion independent of the tolerance. Settlers: the Harris/Kendrick plat (Serial Set 163) and the Indiana–Michigan Boundary Commission's remonumentation records.
• The school section's sale. Section 16's alienation is evidenced by Thrall's 1856 private addition on its northwest quarter; the sale's date, purchaser and price are not printed. Settler: the state's school-land sale records for T37N R4E, section 16.
• Chapman's marsh and its Island. Unidentified on the modern map; the Baugo-bottoms identification is not supported by Chapman's axis. Settlers: the 1829 federal survey plat and field notes for T37N R4E (copies at the University of Notre Dame Archives) and the 1863 Stokes map of St. Joseph County (Library of Congress). The swamp-land selections inside Penn, under the 1850 grant, stand in the state's swamp-land records.
• Baugo Bay's making. Undated and unproven; the 1903-dam claim rests on the Lincoln Highway Association guide alone. Settlers: USACE inventory source files and IDNR dam-safety files for any Baugo Creek structure; Indiana Michigan Power's Twin Branch project records (FERC files) for the pool's 1903 upstream extent; South Bend and Elkhart newspaper files for 1903; the two counties' commissioners' records for 1902–04.
• A Baugo Creek flood number. None exists in the Survey's record for station 04101080. Settlers: the FEMA Flood Insurance Study's hydrology tables for Baugo Creek, and IDNR or county high-water records.
• Townsite soil map units; the Ellsworth/Antrim split under Penn; a Penn-only ditch census; a Penn flood record. Settlers, in order: a Web Soil Survey area-of-interest report for the townsite and riverfront; the state geological map files read at township scale with IDNR well records; the County Surveyor's regulated-drain records; the Flood Insurance Study's historic-flooding table and the Osceola/Mishawaka press files for March 1908, March 1982 and February 2018.
• Images located, none pulled. No image is used in this section. The 1875 atlas's Osceola plat (p. 41) and Penn Township plates (pp. 86–87) exist in the Higgins/Belden atlas on archive.org — rights basis: a published 1875 atlas in a public scan; their farm-owner names are plate-image record, carried at transcription strength in People.

Sources:

1. Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vol. II — treaty texts: Chicago 1821 (7 Stat. 218); Carey Mission 1828 (7 Stat. 317); Tippecanoe treaties of October 1832 (7 Stat. 378, 394, 399); Chicago 1833 and the Pokagon supplementary articles (7 Stat. 442 ff.). Royce, Cessions of Land by Indian Tribes to the United States — Cessions Nos. 18, 20, 22, 23, 33–47. Wyckoff, "Potawatomi Reservations in Indiana and Illinois, 1818–1832" (2020) and "Michigan's Indian Reservations, 1807–1855" (2019) — located reserves.
2. Surveyor General Edward Tiffin's report and Eleazer P. Kendrick's plat, 24 November 1827 (Serial Set 163; Act of 2 March 1827); Kendrick's field notes, October 1827 (McNamara transcription, Indiana State Library facsimile); St. Joseph County Surveyor's boundary history (South Bend press, 2025); Indiana Historical Bureau northern-boundary marker; Historical Marker Database markers 77262 (Indian Boundary Line) and L1363C vicinity (Parc aux Vaches); Indiana Geographic Information Council / IndianaMap PLSS layer, read 2026-11-11; USGS GNIS — Osceola (2396838), Baugo Creek, Baugo Bay, State Line community.
3. Indiana Archives and Records Administration, "Land Records" and "LaPorte–Winamac Land Office Entries 1833–1855." Chapman (1880), pp. 332, 337–338, 789–790, 827; Howard (1907), pp. 154–155, 157, 292, 294–295, 308–310 — as read first-hand for this build.
4. Gray, Physiographic Divisions of Indiana, IGS Special Report 61 (2000); Bayless, Westjohn & Watson, USGS WRIR 95-4041 (1995); IDNR Division of Water, Bedrock and Unconsolidated Aquifer Systems of St. Joseph County; Soil Survey of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1973; IN141); USDA Official Soil Series Descriptions — OSCEOLA (Rev. 02/2011) and MISHAWAKA (Rev. 11/2021).
5. IDEM/MACOG, Baugo Creek Watershed Management Plan (2004) and IDEM Baugo Creek watershed summary; Indiana Natural Resources Commission navigable-waterways roster; USGS NWIS station file and field measurements, 04101080 Baugo Creek at Osceola, and peak file, 04101000 St. Joseph River at Elkhart; St. Joseph County Parks Five Year Master Plan 2019–2023; Save Baugo Bay / Everclear Aquatic Management, Baugo Bay Sediment Removal Plan (Jan. 2026); Indiana Michigan Power plant histories (Elkhart, Twin Branch) and USACE National Inventory of Dams entries IN03010, IN03011; FEMA Flood Insurance Study 18141CV000C (preliminary, 30 Jan. 2026) and Federal Register base flood elevations (4 Jan. 2011); USGS WRIR 83-4201, Floods of March 1982; City of South Bend flood-study record (2018); Lincoln Highway Association Indiana byway guide, as quoted in Jim Grey's "Down the Road" readings (Dec. 2025).