Meeker County posts remonumentation data online after $300,000 state grant

County administrator Andrew Leson told the Meeker County Board of Commissioners on June 2 that a state-funded remonumentation project is complete and the results are now publicly available on the county’s Beacon GIS mapping site.

Leson said the county received a $300,000 state grant to update and publish section-corner data for all of Dassel Township and half of Kowan (Colinwood) Township. The work included remonumenting section corners, producing certificates and photographing the monuments; Leson said those records — including coordinates and historical notes going back to 1855 — were added to the Beacon site under a layer labeled “public land survey data.” “If you click on the dot, then it comes up with this box that shows the ID, the noring, the easting, the section pictures, uh section information, section pictures,” Leson said.

Leson told the board the project was 100% state funded and that the county incurred no direct cost for the work. He said remonumentation is time-consuming and costly to do county‑wide and that the county will pursue additional grant dollars to extend the program to other townships.

Why it matters: remonumented section corners support property description accuracy, land use decisions and public works projects. The Beacon layer will let staff and residents locate and review certificates and photographs linked to each monument.

Next steps: county staff will pursue additional grant opportunities and discuss whether to fund future remonumentation in smaller budgeted phases if state funding is unavailable.