North Dakota Land and PropertyEdit This Page From FamilySearch
Wiki When the United States acquired North Dakota, most of the
land became part of the public domain. The federal government
administered the land through the General Land Office. Available
land was surveyed into townships and transferred to private
ownership through a process called land entry. The first General
Land Office was established at Pembina in 1870. The local land
offices kept tract books (recording transactions for each
section of land), and township plats (maps of land entries for
each township). Land entry in North Dakota was based either on
cash payment for the land (cash entries), or on conditions of
settlement (homesteads after 1862). Once a settler completed the
requirements for land entry, his case file was sent to the
General Land Office in Washington, DC, where a patent or first-
title deed was issued. To locate the land-entry or homestead
case file for your ancestor, you will need to know either the
patent number or the legal