| Georgia's most well-known example of land surveying | | | | would start at one and proceed in numerical order. This |
| was the Georgia Land Lotteries. Land surveyors were | | | | attention to detail and exactness has caused some |
| called in to measure and regulate the parcels of land | | | | confusion to this day; unless you pay special attention |
| that were to be sold off by lottery. Each time the land | | | | to which district you are looking at on a map, you may |
| of the Creek and Cherokee people was ceded to the | | | | read it wrong because the districts are all so similar, |
| state, the land needed to be surveyed prior to being | | | | and many run almost parallel to each other. These |
| distributed by lottery. | | | | districts and lots are in use to this day. Many of the |
| In 1802, at Fort Wilkinson, two strips of land were | | | | country lines have shifted and changed over the years, |
| ceded by the Creek tribe; one in the Southeast corner | | | | but the original survey of lots has not. Properties in |
| of present-day Georgia, and one just west of the | | | | Georgia are still identified by land lot number, land |
| Oconee River. The Land Lottery Act of May 1803 set | | | | district number and county; sometimes the original |
| out the process for the lottery. Three counties were | | | | county name is listed as well. |
| created, and varying numbers of districts within those | | | | The first 5 Land Lotteries (1805, 1807, 1820, 1821 and |
| counties: five districts in Baldwin County, three districts | | | | 1827) redistributed the Creek lands that had been |
| in Wayne County, and five districts in Wilkinson County. | | | | ceded, in some cases forcibly, to the state. By the end |
| For each of the 13 districts, one surveyor was hired to | | | | of the 1827 Land Lottery, all Creek lands in Georgia |
| map and segment the land into lots. Each surveyor | | | | had been taken away from them. The 6th and 7th |
| was paid $2.75 per mile, which had to include all | | | | Land Lotteries (both in 1832) gave away the land of |
| incidental costs, such as field note books and salaries | | | | the Cherokee Nation. Their forced exodus would be |
| for anyone who they hired to assist them. Once the | | | | termed the "Trail of Tears". The second 1832 Land |
| survey of the district was complete, the surveyor | | | | Lottery also gave away land used during the Georgia |
| would forward his records to the Georgia Surveyor | | | | Gold Rush, although the government did not guarantee |
| General. The total lots surveyed for the first Land | | | | that there was any gold left on the lots. The final Land |
| Lottery was 4,580 whole lots. Any fractional lots or | | | | Lottery was held in December 1833. It distributed lots |
| islands less than 100 acres were held out of the 1805 | | | | and fractions not placed during either of the 1832 |
| auction and sold at public auction in 1806. | | | | lotteries. |
| The surveys for the first Land Lottery set the | | | | Over the course of a mere 24 years, most of the land |
| precedent for how the rest of the counties in Georgia | | | | that present-day Georgia occupies was ceded, |
| would be assessed and divided. Each of the districts | | | | surveyed and redistributed in lots with property |
| was subdivided into numbered land lots; each one | | | | boundaries that stand even today. |