[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 79 (Monday, June 2, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S7194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BOND:
  S. 1167. A bill to resolve the boundary conflicts in Barry and Stone 
Counties in the State of Missouri; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to 
resolve the unfortunate boundary line disputes in Southwest Missouri 
that have resulted from conflicting Federal Government land surveys 
performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the United States 
Forest Service, USFS, respectively. The land involving these disputed 
property lines is located in the vicinity of the Cassville District of 
the Mark Twain National Forest in Barry and Stone Counties adjacent to 
Table Rock Lake.
  During the 1970's, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, through various 
private land surveyors, surveyed this area around Table Rock Lake. In 
its surveys, the Corps found that most of the original ``corner 
monuments'' or boundary lines laid out by the U.S. General Land Office, 
GLO, in its original land surveys performed in the 1840's were either 
lost, stolen or had eroded over the years. Because of this, Corps 
surveyors used existing de-facto land markers in the vicinity of the 
original GLO monuments as the basis for its new survey. Prior to the 
Corps surveys, these defacto monuments were recognized by local 
surveyors as legitimate boundary markers and were used in survey after 
survey over the decades.
  For almost 30 years, private landowners in Barry and Stone Counties 
bought and sold their land based on the surveys performed by the Corps 
in the 1970's. However, several years ago, the USFS performed new land 
surveys using surveying technology that had only recently become 
available. As a result of these new surveys, the USFS now claims that 
the boundary lines in its surveys conflict with the boundary lines 
established in the previous corps surveys. In addition to this, the 
USFS has announced that the Corps surveys are incorrect and that 
property lines all over this area are in the wrong place.
  Because of these new revelations, many private property owners in the 
vicinity of the Mark Twain National Forest, who bought and paid for 
their land in good faith based on a previous Federal Government survey, 
are now being told that they have encroached on USFS land.
  USFS has begun telling these private landowners that their land now 
belongs to the Federal Government, and that they will have to reimburse 
the USFS for the Federal land that the landowners now occupy. 
Naturally, these actions have produced chaos, confusion and anger among 
landowners in these two counties.
  Needless to say, it is inherently unfair and absolutely devoid of any 
common sense to expect private landowners to compensate the Federal 
Government for land that they have already purchased simply because the 
government has changed its collective mind about where Federal property 
begins and ends.
  Over the past 18 months, I have repeatedly asked the USFS and the 
Army Corps of Engineers to work together to find a solution that would 
resolve this problem. Unfortunately, after 18 month of debate and 
disagreement, the Corps of Engineers and the USFS have been unable to 
agree on a resolution of this problem. In the meantime, the lives of 
many of these Missouri residents continue to be disrupted.
  Therefore, I have concluded that Federal legislation represents the 
only feasible solution to this boundary problem. This legislation 
authorize the Secretary of the Agriculture to convey, without 
consideration, title to land in which there is a boundary conflict, 
with adjoining federal land, to private landowners, who can demonstrate 
a claim of ownership because they relied on a subsequent land survey 
approved by the Federal Government.

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