One of the most important services the BLM provides is as caretaker of the nation's land survey and mineral information records. These records originate with the founding of the nation. Congress created the General Land Office (GLO) in 1812 to handle the increasing land business from the rapid westward expansion. The GLO was given the responsibility for maintaining the land and mineral records.
Since 1946 these and other federal land and mineral records have been maintained by the BLM in a growing serialized casefile system, which today nationwide contains more than two billion documents. Many of these serialized cases have been abstracted and made available on-line through the Bureau of Land Management Lands and Mineral Records-LR2000 database at www.blm.gov/lr2000. The database contains mining claim data and information about federal current and historical leases, permits, land and mineral acquisitions, sales and exchanges, grants, withdrawals and more.
Land Status and Cadastral Survey Records
BLM also has continued to maintain the official Land Status and Cadastral Survey records since the GLO days. These records are comprised of the Master Title Plats, Historical Index pages, Cadastral Plats and Survey Notes organized by state, township and range.
The General Land Office (GLO) Records website includes image access to more than five million Federal land title records issued between 1820 and the present. It also contains images related to survey plats and field notes, dating back to 1810. Due to organization of documents in the GLO collection, this site does not currently contain every Federal title record issued for the Public Land States.