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The large Twichell collection of Texas surveys to be made available
October 7 [date seen].
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Texas&month=1010&week=a&msg=mv8ATU1anTvhgrvEgjQXiw&user=&pw=
'Collection Acquisition---Texas General Land Office Archives' (an announcement
from Mark Lambert, Deputy Commissioner Archives and Records, Texas General Land
Office, 29 September 2010 - relayed via H-Texas on 5 October).
'Legendary land surveying papers donated to Texas General Land Office Land
surveys unavailable for more than 50 years will soon be widely accessible to
the public.
'Beginning more than 120 years ago, Willis Day Twichell surveyed tens of
millions of acres of public and private lands in West Texas. He laid out more
than 40 towns and provided surveying work in 165 of 254 counties in Texas. The
lands he surveyed included the boundary between Texas and New Mexico, gave rise
to the legendary XIT Ranch, funded the building of the State Capitol, helped
build railroads and fund public education in Texas, and were integral to the
exploration of oil and gas in West Texas throughout the 20th century.
'The W.D. Twichell Survey Records were recently donated to the Texas General
Land Office by a consortium of four oil companies operating in the Midland
area: Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Atlantic Richfield Company, ConocoPhillips Company
and ExxonMobil Corporation. The records consist of hundreds of field books,
working sketches, 200 finished maps, field notes, and about 50,000 pages of
correspondence that document surveying work performed in Texas, Oklahoma, New
Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico. Land Office Archives staff members are
eager to provide full public access to the collection as soon as possible. "Our
goal is to have the Twichell Papers available to researchers by January 2011,"
said Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. "Our
Archives staff also hopes to have all of the Twichell maps and selected
documents scanned and available online by January 2012," Patterson said. "This
shows the commitment of the Land Office and Save Texas History program to
preserve the records that document the history of this great state and make
them widely available."
'Before Twichell's death in 1959, the Atlantic Refining Company, Continental
Oil Company, Gulf Oil Corporation, Humble Oil & Refining Company, Mobil Oil
Company and the Sinclair Oil & Gas Company, organized as the Twichell Survey
Records Committee, bought the records and placed them in a private storage
facility in Midland. Few people besides oil company employees have had access
to the records until now. "The Twichell records document an important part of
the history of West Texas and the Panhandle," Patterson said. "We're excited
about their addition to the most important collection of maps and records
documenting the history of Texas land."
'It will cost approximately $20,000 to preserve, properly house and digitally
scan the Twichell records so the public can have total access to them, and
potentially $500,000 or more to conserve all of the maps. If you are interested
in donating to the preservation and conservation of the Twichell records
through the General Land Office's Save Texas History program, please call the
Archives and Records Program of the Texas General Land Office at 512-463-5277
or e-mail [email protected].'
Tony Campbell
[email protected]
** extract from: 'Latest News' - for the full story see the link above
http://www.maphistory.info/newslatest.html
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