Research

Administrative History

These original blue line maps were executed as a result of State Engineer and Surveyor Frank P. Williams' insistence that new surveys were needed to document state land claims. Arguing in 1909 that since the state owned valuable property within the old canal blue lines and that the description of much adjoining property depended on them, Williams pointed out that it would be almost impossible to retrace the former blue lines after old canal banks and structures were eradicated during the construction of the proposed Barge Canal. The resulting confusion in land ownership rights would necessitate lengthy and expensive legal contests.

Chapter 199, Laws 1910, and its amendment in Chapter 51, Laws 1917, directed the State Engineer and Surveyor to make the necessary surveys, field notes and manuscript maps of all the portions of the Erie, Oswego, and Champlain Canals which were not within the lines of the "improved" or Barge Canal System and as they existed before the advent of the Barge Canal System; boundaries of all adjacent and connected State lands, as well as the names of private owners of existing lands, were designated on the maps. Completed maps were filed with the Canal Board; originals were then filed in the office of the State Engineer and Surveyor and signed and certified white print copies of the maps were filed with the Office of the Comptroller, the Secretary of State, and the Superintendent of Public Works.