COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Branch County Board of Commissioners brought forward a request from Administrator Frank Walsh during their work session on Thursday to find a surveyor to do work along the Michigan-Indiana border under terms of the Michigan-Indiana State Line Remonumentation Act of 2022 that was pushed forward earlier this year by State Senator Jonathon Lindsey (R-Coldwater) .
The law created the Michigan Indiana State Line Commission to carry out the responsibilities for the survey and recovery of replacement monuments defining the Michigan-Indiana state line.
Walsh says this is no easy task and it was his understanding after talking with state officials the surveyor is going to have to find 24 buried wooden stakes from the 1820’s.
The state has provided Branch County with a grant of over $127,000 to complete the work.
Formal action is expected next Tuesday on the request to allow county administration to seek proposals from licensed surveyors to complete the remonumentation program.
A surveyor is scheduled to be selected during the Commissioners work session July 9, 2026. According to the grant terms, the county has to begin appropriating funds by September 30, 2026.
In his memo to the Commissioners, Walsh described what the state is asking the county to do
Any differences revealed by the survey between recorded documents and evidence regarding the location of mileposts defining the state line would have to the resolved.
The county would also have to coordinate with the State of Indiana for the placement of any mileposts or originally set posts along the border determined to be lost.
Grant terms also call for Branch County to compile and submit all appropriate records and documents verifying the locations of the mileposts and posts originally set at or near the shores of lakes and larger rivers that defined the 1827 state line.
Comments