Land Ownership Information for Minnesota
Who owns land in Minnesota? How much is publicly owned and how much is private? This overview site provides links to information available to help answer such questions, ranging from parcel boundary maps to statewide inventories of public land to fascinating histories of how land ownership patterns developed over time.'
Parcel Boundaries
Parcel boundary data, maps and ownership records are maintained at the county level, usually by the recorder's, assessor's or land surveyor's offices. Many Minnesota counties keep records in digital format and provide parcel information websites for use by the general public.
The boundaries shown on the maps and the GIS data sets are approximate -- they are not substitutes for certified property surveys, legal property descriptions or detailed plat maps. Property records may also be referred to as parcel, cadastral, real estate or real property records.
Statewide Inventories of Public Land
Several inventories provide a picture of public land ownership patterns in Minnesota. They are intended for overview and general planning purposes. Ownership was mapped for each public land survey quarter-quarter section (40-acre unit). The owner is determined by whichever agency owns or administers more than 50 percent of a quarter-quarter section. The inventories are snapshots in time, compiled from data from many sources of varying quality and currency. There is no comprehensive statewide database of current ownership information and no ongoing maintenance of the inventory data, except at some individual agencies such as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
- GAP Stewardship: This inventory was conducted to provide ownership and administration information for the Gap Analysis Project, an effort to identify gaps in biodiversity protection. Currency ranges from 1976-2007, although the information is predominantly from 1983-1985. A version with some updates was published in May 2008. A newer version is in progress.
- GIS data (fgdb format): Version published in 2008 is online in Esri file geodatabase format from DNR until the update is available.
- State Lands Administered by DNR: This inventory identifies lands acquired, administered, and/or managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and is updated weekly.
- 1983 Minnesota Public Lands: This inventory, coordinated by the Land Management Information Center and DNR, gathered summary land record information for nearly all federal and state agencies that manage land and for several regional commissions in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
- Written report with descriptive text, maps and summary tables (PDF, 2.3MB, 61 p.). Tables include percentages and acreages of state and federal lands by county, provided as totals and by specific agencies. Note: the report can also be downloaded in Word format for users who need to copy the table numbers into a spreadsheet or database.
- GIS data: This data set incorporates several more data sources than were covered in the above report, thus it contains more categories of ownership.
- State-Owned Land in Minnesota, October 2002: This overview report from House Research summarizes how much Minnesota land is owned by government units. The report includes a map showing the approximate percentage of state-owned land within each county.
- Inventory of State-Owned Land: Since 2002, the Minnesota Department of Administration has been mandated by Minnesota Statute 16B.245 to conduct a biennial inventory of all state-owned land, including land with improvements, and the number of acres owned by the State. The results from each agency are available in PDF format; the results have not been integrated into a single file, map or coding system.
Historic and Educational Resources
A number of online and printed maps, atlases and reports reveal historic land ownership patterns and describe underlying forces influencing the ownership landscape we see today.
- Original Public Land Survey plats of Minnesota: View or download digital copies of historic Minnesota township plat maps collected during the original Public Land Survey.
- Includes General Land Office (GLO) Field Notes that have been scanned, indexed, and published online.
- Lands and Minerals Division publications, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. See especially:
- Public Land and Mineral Ownership in Minnesota: A Guide for Teachers: Not just for teachers! This clearly written guide explains the evolution of land and mineral ownership in the state -- numerous maps illustrate the text.
- Map of State Owned Lands in Minnesota by Land Type
- Minnesota's School Trust Lands
- The Treaty Story, Minnesota Historical Society: This website presents a series of historic maps and description of how the U.S. Government acquired Minnesota lands from the Dakota, Ojibwe, and Ho Chunk Native Americans.
- Minnesota Historical Society's Map Collection: Contains 1,350 historical county atlases and plat books showing land ownership, as well as fire insurance maps showing individual structures.
- Borchert Map Library, University of Minnesota: The library maintains a print collection of current and historical plat maps for all the counties in Minnesota.
- A Guide to the Records of Minnesota's Public Lands, by Gregory Kinney and Lydia Lucas, Minnesota Historical Society, Division of Archives and Manuscripts, 1985.
- "The records described in this guide document the state of Minnesota's acquisition, sale, and management of its trust fund, railroad grant, and related lands, as well as the federal land survey of Minnesota and the initial transfer of title to public lands from the federal government to the state or to private parties. The approximately 800 cubic feet of records were created primarily by four agencies: the State Land Office, the Land Department of the State Auditor's office, the U.S. General Land Office in Minnesota, and the U.S. Surveyor General for Minnesota. The guide also summarizes land-related records in other state agencies, with individual descriptions of particularly pertinent records series."
- Windows to the Past: A bibliography of Minnesota county atlases, by Mai Treude, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota, 1980.
- "A comprehensive listing of Minnesota's county atlases and where they are available. Published from 1867 to the present, these atlases contain records of land use and land ownership, directories of businesses and residences, photographs of buildings and people, genealogies, county histories, and advertisements. In an introduction to the bibliography, a brief history of the county atlas and how it developed in Minnesota is presented along with a number of illustrations from Minnesota atlases."
State Land for Sale
Occasionally, state land is sold. Check the following websites:
Related land sale and property search sites:
- Site location tools of available commercial land, sites and buildings throughout Minnesota from the Department of Employment and Economic Development
Contact and Update Information
The information above represents MnGeo's most up-to-date understanding of land ownership data for Minnesota.
If you know of other publicly available land ownership information sources, please let us know: gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
