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I recently was filing the certificate of a joyous wedding at the County Recorder’s Office. For sale for $10 while they last is the 2012 Cook County Plat Book and Land Atlas, about to be updated. Original price was $35.00.
Being curious, a sucker for a bargain, and always on the lookout for information sources, I bought one. The Atlas is a veritable Cook County information fount. Here is what I have learned from perusal.
—Caveat in the Atlas: “The information is provided here ‘as is’ with no guarantee or representation about its accuracy, currency, suitability, performance, merchantability, reliability, or fitness or any purpose.” …. [That paragraph was surely written by a lawyer seeking to avoid lawsuits.] “Also, mobile home trailers, condominiums, and apartments may not be represented in this book.” [May not?]
–If you have bought land since the 2012 publication date, the alphabetical owner index will show the 2012 owner of tax parcels, not the current owner.
–You open the book to a promising Table of Contents. There is an explanation of the Public Land Survey System, a Brief Geography and History of Cook County, and a User’s Guide showing map page features.
–It has 155 pages and four indices [don’t you just love Latin plurals?]: Owner (alphabetical); Owner (numerical, by last four digits of tax parcel number); Roads, and Lakes. Now when you see a TV story about a lake you haven’t heard of, say Little Copper Lake, consult the Atlas you keep by your recliner.
–Useful maps abound — Cook County, County Commissioner and Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Volunteer Fire Districts, and Zoning Districts. The last page and back cover are a map of Grand Marais and a Service Directory showing not only county services but also cities and townships, schools, other local information, and Visitor Information.
–For more information on the Public Land Survey System, in addition to googling that term, find the original plat maps for Minnesota at www.mngeo.state mn.us/glo/ index.htm.
The Zoning Districts map shows narrow strips of zoned land along the Gunflint Trail and Arrowhead Trail all the way to the Canadian border. And there are narrow strips of zoned land along the County Roads in Schroeder, Tofte, and Lutsen and around a rectangle just to the West of Grand Marais. Colvill, Hovland and Grand Portage have zoned land. Most of the land along the North Shore is zoned single family residential. Almost all of the rest of the zoned land is one of three forms of “Forest/ Agriculture Residential.” The Lutsen Resort, ski hill, and golf course and a tiny area in Schroeder are zoned RC/R, “Resort Commercial/ Residential.” [I suspect the proposed ski hill expansion will need a rezoning — by Lutsen Township or the County?]
Note that Zoning District Map does not begin to show all roads. Almost all those shown are numbered County or Township Roads, some of the latter recently “Unorganized.”
Did you know we have eight different volunteer fire districts in Cook County? If we call 911, I suspect the proper fire company is contacted.
The Grand Marias City map at the back has several insights. (1) The west city limit ends where Highway 61 turns 45 degrees south, but the bulk of the west boundary is about where 20th Avenue West would be if there were one. (2) At least one third of the city is unplatted land north of County Road 7. That includes the big water tower and whatever is at the end of Old Ski Hill Road, UT64. (3) Highlighted destinations include City Hall, the Courthouse, Law Enforcement Center, Highway Department, Community Center, and Recycling Center. So, you can at least get a building permit, married, or sentenced; sit in jail; complain about unplowed roads (rare); and get a vaccination and dump your solid waste without leaving that map. [For a more complete life, perhaps the next volume will also highlight the Rec Park, liquor and grocery stores, library, and gas stations along with the public restrooms behind City Hall. And have an arrow pointing to Gunflint Hills Golf Course.]
The geography section tells us Cook County has 3,339.72 square miles, of which 57 percent is water. [I had no idea!] We are 3.6 people per square mile. 69.7 percent of that land is federally owned, 15.24 percent is state owned and only 9.27 percent is privately owned with about 5 percent not explained. [No wonder our tax assessors tear their hairs out and look to the state and federal governments for their payments in lieu of taxes.]
You will want to read it all yourselves, but two facts from the brief history caught my attention.
(1) Throughout the 1940’s, iced fish caught one day went by truck to Duluth and then by overnight train to Chicago where they arrived the next morning! (2) The principal businesses in our County are now tourism, government, and logging.
Consult the User Guide to make the property information most useful. In big letters at the bottom of the Contents page is “Additional map and property information available online at co.cook.mn.us.platbook.”
An easy test of use of the plat maps is to find Homestead (housing) Cooperative of Grand Marais. Look up Homestead in the alphabetical index. Find it on page 34, Section 20. When you get to page 34, you find Section 20 has a detail map on page 41. There in the center of the page you find Homestead Coop.
If you have a parcel ID number, you check that list to find the owner’s name and head back to the alphabetical index. [Once you locate your own place, you can find out the owners of all your neighboring properties in case you want to invite them over after the Pandemic.]
Those needing a less expensive but only slightly less useful Atlas will want to hurry down to the Courthouse to get a $10 bargain. The more patient and/ or well-to-do will wait until the new Atlas appears.
[If this column bored you, and you read this far anyway, there is no hope].
Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, mediator, and Judge, serving from 1997-2010. He and his wife moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses. Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without appointment by the Chief Justice. Copyright Stephen C. Aldrich and News Herald, 2021
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