Every piece of land has a history.

The reference room

Four corners, one desk. Start wherever you like.

• The map table

  Find your land

  Drop a pin or draw the outline. The survey grid tells you which township, range and section you are standing in.

• The shelf

  Example histories

  Worked examples from real records, so you can see what a worked history looks like before you start your own.

• The reading room

  How we research, and the booklet

  Dr. Bob Zybach’s research methods and his 19 types of evidence, in plain English.

  Open the booklet

• The desk bell

  Ask the Reference Desk

  An AI assistant that follows Bob’s published method. It shows its sources, and it says so when the record is silent.

The door’s open. Mind the mud.

How it works

1. Pin it

   Drop a pin on the map, or draw the outline of your place. Your pin stays private to you.

2. Get your Surveyor’s Walk card

   Free and one page, for the survey section your place sits in: where it sits in the survey grid, the same ground today, and where its records live.

3. Ask your question, get a brief

   One page built around your question: what the record shows, what it can’t say, and what to look up next. Keep it in your land folder.

Find your land

Example histories

Each one shows what the record says, what it can’t say, and what to look up next.

• 

  A tree farm near Pedee

  Sullivan Tree Farm: Sections 28 and 33, Township 9 South, Range 6 West, Willamette Meridian, west of Pedee, Polk County, Oregon

  The homestead story that wasn’t.

• Soap Creek Valley

  Soap Creek Valley, Benton County, Oregon (mostly Township 10 South, Range 5 West, Willamette Meridian)

  How one thesis put spoken memories beside survey notes, maps and air photos.

• Section 16 near Pedee

  Section 16, Township 9 South, Range 6 West, Willamette Meridian, Polk County, Oregon

  A school section with two pioneer claims inside it.

All example histories