A
meandered lake or stream is water, next
to which the adjoining land owner pays taxes
on the land only. Such land is divided into
divisions of land called government lots.
The location, acreage and and lot number
of each such a tract of land, was determined,
surveyed and platted by the original government
surveyors.
The original survey of your county (complete
maps of each township, meandered lakes,
government lots, etc.) is in your courthouse,
and this original survey is the basis for
all land descriptions in your county (see
Figure 5).
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IMPORTANT
THE GOVERNMENT LOT NUMBER GIVEN TO A PIECE
OF LAND IS THE LEGAL DESCRIPTION OF THAT TRACT
OF LAND.
HOW CAN YOU TELL WHETHER WATER IS MEANDERED
OR PRIVATELY OWNED?
On our Township maps, if you find government
lots adjoining a body of water or stream,
those waters are meandered. If there are no
government lots surrounding water, that water
is privately owned, the owner is paying taxes
on the land under the water, and the owner
controls the hunting, fishing, trapping rights,
etc. on that water, within the regulation
of the State and Federal Fish and Game laws,
EXCEPT where such water is deemed navigable,
other rulings may sometimes pertain.
As a generality (but not always), meandered
water is public water which the public may
use for recreational purposes, fishing, hunting,
trapping, etc., provided that there is legal
access to the water, or in other words, if
the public can get to such waters without
trespassing. There still is much litigation
concerning the respective rights of the public
and adjacent land owners to meandered water,
and many important decisions concerning the
same still have to be made by the courts.
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