USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS

Additional USGS Geoscience data can be found by geographic location or by publication series.

prb_own (ownership coverage for the Powder River Basin, WY and MT)

Frequently-anticipated questions:

• What does this data set describe?
  1. How should this data set be cited?
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
• Who produced the data set?
  1. Who are the originators of the data set?
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
• Why was the data set created?
• How was the data set created?
  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?
• How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?
  1. How well have the observations been checked?
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the data, including topology?
• How can someone get a copy of the data set?
  1. Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
  2. Who distributes the data?
  3. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?
  4. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
  5. How can I download or order the data?
• Who wrote the metadata?

What does this data set describe?

1. How should this data set be cited?

   Biewick, L.R.H., Urbanowski, S.R., Cain, S., and Neasloney, L., 1998, prb_own (ownership coverage for the Powder River Basin, WY and MT): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-102, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO.

   This is part of the following larger work.

   Biewick, L.R.H., Urbanowski, S.R., Cain, S., and Neasloney, L., 1998, Land Status and Federal Mineral Ownership in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana: a digital data set for geographic information systems: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-102, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO.

   Online Links:

   • <http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/fedland/prb_own.html>

2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

   West_Bounding_Coordinate: -107.37168386

   East_Bounding_Coordinate: -104.55458943

   North_Bounding_Coordinate: 46.42181673

   South_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.74191423

3. What does it look like?

4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

   Beginning_Date: 1980

   Ending_Date: 1998

   Currentness_Reference: publication date

5. What is the general form of this data set?

   Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map

6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
   1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • Label Point (14694)
      • String (33957)
      • GT-polygon composed of chains (14695)

   2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      The map projection used is Lambert Conformal Conic.

      Projection parameters:

      Standard_Parallel: 33

      Standard_Parallel: 45

      Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -107.5

      Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0

      False_Easting: 0.00000

      False_Northing: 0.00000

      Planar coordinates are encoded using coordinate pair
      Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1.0
      Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1.0
      Planar coordinates are specified in METERS

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1927.
      The ellipsoid used is Clarke 1866.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378206.4.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/294.98.
      

7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

   PRB_OWN.PAT FEDCOAL

   FEDCOAL region subclass attribute table for PRB_OWN (Federal coal ownership) (Source: ARC/INFO)

   PRB_OWN.PAT FEDOG

   FEDOG region subclass attribute table for PRB_OWN (Federal oil and gas ownership) (Source: ARC/INFO)

   PRB_OWN.PAT

   Polygon attribute table of PRB_OWN. (Source: ARC/INFO)

   Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:

   SURF
   land ownership, surface management status U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
   FEDMINS
   Federal mineral ownership, subsurface ownership U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
   SURFACE AND MINERAL MANAGEMENT STATUS ATTRIBUTES
   SURF 8,8,C (Land Status)
   

   PRIVATE
   STATE
   BLM  (Bureau of Land Management)
   FS   (Forest Service)
   BJ   (Bankhead Jones Land Use Lands)
   TL   (Tribal Lands, BIA)
   NG   (National Grasslands)
   DOD  (Department of Defense)
   FED  (other Federal)
   PWR  (Public Water Reserves)
   WATER
   

   FEDMINS 8,8,C (Minerals owned by the Federal Government)
   

   NONE
   ALL
   OTHER
   COAL  (coal only)
   OGC   (oil, gas and coal only)
   OGC+  (oil, gas, coal and other)
   OG    (oil and gas only)
   R     (restricted minerals)
   

   Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: USGS Open-File Report 98-102a

Who produced the data set?

1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
   • Biewick, L.R.H.
   • Urbanowski, S.R.
   • Cain, S.
   • Neasloney, L.

2. Who also contributed to the data set?

   
   Bill Larson, U.S. Geological Survey, created Public Land Survey System (PLSS) digital files from USGS 1:100,000-scale Digital Line Graph (DLG) files for seven 1:100,000-scale quadrangles in Wyoming. These PLSS coverages were used as reference by contractor, Geologic Data Systems, Inc., to create surface and Federal mineral ownership coverages based on the 1:100,000-scale surface and mineral management status maps published by the BLM.
   Margaret Ellis, U.S. Geological Survey, created the coverage for the outline of the Powder River Basin based on geologic studies. The basin outline represents the base of the Tertiary Fort Union Formation, or the general Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The northeastern portion of the boundary was generalized along the Miles City Arch area and the Yellowstone River.
   Corla DeBar, Montana State BLM Office, performed quality control on the digital ownership files for the 1:100,000-scale quadrangles in Montana.
   Tracey Loewecke, U.S. Geological Survey, attributed Federal mineral ownership to complete the coverage for the Terry, MT 1:100,000-scale quadrangle.
   

3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
   U.S. Geological Survey
   P.O. Box 25046, MS 939
   Denver, CO 80225
   USA
   

   (303)236-7773 (voice)
   lbiewick@usgs.gov
   

Why was the data set created?

As the Nation's energy resources continue to be examined for development, it is critical that a digital database exist that contains location data for all Federal land and mineral resources. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is collecting these ownership files and compiling them in ARC/INFO coverages, to form a standardized data library. These coverages are combined with models of coal deposits from the USGS National Coal Assessment, a five year effort to identify and characterize the coal beds and coal zones that could potentially provide the fuel for the Nation's coal-derived energy during the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Geographic and geologic data layers are integrated in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to answer complex geo-spatial questions concerning coal resource occurrence. This ARC/INFO coverage also contains location data for Federal oil and gas and other Federal minerals in the Powder River Basin (PRB).

How was the data set created?

1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

   Keystone, 1997 (source 1 of 20)

   Keystone Coal Industry Manual, 1997, Keystone Coal Industry Manual: Intertec Publishing Co., Chicago, IL.

   Type_of_Source_Media: book

   Source_Contribution:

   largest in-place coal resources of any field in the contiguous U.S. are in the Powder River Basin

   The Mining Record (source 2 of 20)

   Record, The Mining , 19970611, Powder River is the largest U.S. coal mining company.

   Other_Citation_Details:

   newspaper - The Mining Record Publishing Co., Englewood, CO, Toll Free: 1-800-441-4748, Tel: (303)770-6791.

   Type_of_Source_Media: newspaper

   Source_Contribution:

   Powder River Basin produces one-fourth of the Nation's total coal production

   NRIS (source 3 of 20)

   Montana Natural Resource Information System (NRIS), 1996, Montana Public Lands.

   Online Links:

   • <URL:http://nris.mt.gov/ftp/montana/blm/owners.html>
   • (Metadata document is <URL:http://nris.mt.gov/nsdi/nris/ab105.HTML>)

   Other_Citation_Details: from 1:100,000-scale BLM quadrangles (online)

   Type_of_Source_Media: online

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution:

   land ownership by 1:100,000-scale quadrangles in southeastern Montana

   Lame Deer, MT 100k BLM map (source 4 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1980, Surface and mineral management status, Lame Deer quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Birney, MT 100k BLM map (source 5 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1981, Surface and mineral management status, Birney quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Lodge Grass, MT 100k BLM map (source 6 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1982, Surface and mineral management status, Lodge Grass quadrangle, Montana-Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Terry, MT 100k BLM map (source 7 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1982, Surface and mineral management status, Terry quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Hardin, MT 100k BLM map (source 8 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1987, Surface and mineral management status, Hardin quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Bill, WY 100k BLM map (source 9 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1989, Surface and mineral management status, Bill quadrangle, Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Newcastle, WY 100k BLM map (source 10 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1989, Surface and mineral management status, Newcastle quadrangle, Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Broadus, MT 100k BLM map (source 11 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1990, Surface and mineral management status, Broadus quadrangle, Montana-Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Midwest, WY 100k BLM map (source 12 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1990, Surface and mineral management status, Midwest quadrangle, Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Miles City, MT 100k BLM map (source 13 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1990, Surface and mineral management status, Miles City quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Lance Creek, WY 100k BLM map (source 14 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1991, Surface and mineral management status, Lance Creek quadrangle, Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Powderville, MT 100k BLM map (source 15 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1992, Surface and mineral management status, Powderville quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Forsyth, MT 100k BLM map (source 16 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1993, Surface and mineral management status, Forsyth quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Hysham, MT 100k BLM map (source 17 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1993, Surface and mineral management status, Hysham quadrangle, Montana.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Lusk, WY 100k BLM map (source 18 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1993, Surface and mineral management status, Lusk quadrangle, Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Sundance, WY 100k BLM map (source 19 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1994, Surface and mineral management status, Sundance quadrangle, Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

   Douglas, WY 100K BLM map (source 20 of 20)

   U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 1995, Surface and mineral management status, Douglas quadrangle, Wyoming.

   Type_of_Source_Media: paper

   Source_Scale_Denominator: 100,000

   Source_Contribution: land and Federal mineral ownership

2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

   Date: 1996 (process 1 of 1)

   The data for the northern Powder River Basin, Montana, was partially created by the Montana State BLM office. These coverages were downloaded from the Montana Natural Resource Information System of the Montana State Library at <http://nris.mt.gov/nsdi/nris/ab105/owners.html> by 1:100,000-scale quadrangle. This web site provides ARC/INFO coverages with attributes for land status. The BLM uses the 1:100,000-scale published quadrangle maps based on information derived from the Master Title Plats (the official land record) as the source of the STATUS attribute. Federal mineral ownership was not attributed in these files, but the polygons had been digitized in the coverages we used. Federal mineral ownership was added to these coverages by the USGS using the corresponding 1:100,000 hardcopy BLM maps for reference. The items SURF (surface ownership) and FEDMINS (Federal mineral ownership) were added to the Polygon Attribute Table (PAT) and both defined as 8-character fields. SURF was populated using the existing item, STATUS, or by visual reference to the corresponding 1:100,000-scale quadrangle BLM maps to identify bodies of water. Through interaction with the MT State BLM office, and by reference to the corresponding hard copy BLM maps, the item FEDMINS was populated. The ARC/INFO coverages obtained from the MT State BLM office are more recent than any of the hardcopy BLM 1:100,000-scale quadrangles; therefore, the ARC/INFO coverages were honored when small discrepancies were found, especially in areas less than 1/2 section. After attributes were assigned, the coverages were proofed visually by creating hardcopy plots to compare with the BLM original maps.
   Each quadrangle coverage is housed in a USGS Central Energy Resources Team Data Library. A copy of each of the completed coverages was provided in its original projection to the MT State BLM office and ultimately to the Montana State Library. All of the quadrangles that are appended for the Powder River Basin coverage have been projected to Lambert meters with the parameters used for this coverage.
   An ownership layer for the Buffalo Resource Area, WY, was obtained from the WY State BLM office in MOSS export format. This layer covers most of the WY portion of the Powder River Basin, was captured at 1:24,000 scale, and includes both the surface and mineral ownership status as well as types of minerals reserved to the government. The MOSS file is in State Plane meters - zone 5801; it was imported into ARC/INFO using the MOSSARC command and projected to Lambert meters with the parameters used for this coverage. The polygon attribute item, DATA, contains a 6-character ownership attribute coding scheme used by the WY State BLM office, and referred to as the "pizza" code. Letter identifiers within this code define surface ownership, subsurface ownership, agency with jurisdiction, and mineral reservation. The 6th character of the "pizza" code (withdrawal type) was incomplete, so was not used. In ARC/INFO, DISSOLVEd on item 5 of the pizza code to eliminate the incomplete 6th character. Through interaction with the WY State BLM office and by referencing a "pizza" code key provided by that BLM office, the USGS populated the polygon attribute items SURF and FEDMINS to conform to the attributing standards that the USGS has set for our ownership coverages.
   The USGS, through contracts, created surface and Federal mineral ownership coverages for the seven 1:100,000-scale quadrangles that bound the Buffalo Resource Area to the south and southeast. These coverages, combined with the Buffalo Resource Area coverage, encompass the entire WY portion of the Powder River Basin. PLSS coverages created using USGS DLG 1:100,000 files were used for reference to create surface and Federal mineral ownership coverages for these seven 1:100,000-scale quadrangles (Bill, Midwest, Douglas, Sundance, Newcastle, Lance Creek, and Lusk). BLM separates for the most recent BLM surface and mineral management status maps were scanned and vectorized using AutoCad. The AutoCad polygons were attributed and then converted to Arc/Info coverages where they were merged into one seamless coverage using the Arc/Info UNION command. The completed coverages contain polygon attributes in items SURF and FEDMINS.
   The Buffalo Resource Area coverage overlaps the Bill and Midwest 1:100,000-scale quadrangle coverages. More detail exists in the Bill and Midwest quadrangle coverages for National Grasslands (NG) and Bankhead Jones Land Use Lands (BJ) where they overlap the Buffalo Resource Area. In the Buffalo Resource Area coverage, NG and BJ are attributed as Forest Service (FS) because that agency administers the surface. After close inspection in ARCEDIT, the data in Bill and Midwest were appended and used to UPDATE the area of overlap. The rest of the 1:100,000-scale quadrangle coverages were processed using ARC/INFO ERASE, APPEND, and UPDATE as needed to create one coverage for the entire basin. Following APPEND, this Powder River Basin coverage was processed using CLEAN to create polygon topology (BUILD wouldn't work because there were intersections). The before and after CLEAN coverages were compared and no appreciable line offsets were found. The coverage was edited to delete extraneous polygons created during APPEND, and to add arcs where needed in a gap between the Montana data and the Wyoming data at the State line. DISSOLVE was used to eliminate quadrangle boundaries and any other extraneous arcs and polygons. Some minor polygons defining Federal Agency Protective Withdrawals and Public Water Reserves were lost in the DISSOLVE routine. In the Sheridan and Recluse quadrangles, some minor detail on Power Withdrawals and Classifications, and Bureau of Reclamation lands were lost. The Powder River Basin area ownership coverage was intersected with the Powder River Basin boundary coverage to eliminate the data outside of the Powder River Basin as defined for the National Coal Assessment.
   Created Region subclasses for Federal coal ownership (FEDCOAL) and for Federal oil and gas ownership (FEDOG). The Region feature class made it possible to efficiently define Federal coal ownership (includes other minerals) comprised of many noncontiguous areas where the Federal government owns either all the minerals; coal only; oil, gas and coal only; or oil, gas, coal and other minerals. The Region subclass FEDOG defines Federal oil and gas ownership (includes other minerals) comprised of many noncontiguous areas where the Federal government owns either all the minerals; oil and gas only; oil, gas and coal only; or oil, gas, coal and other minerals. NOTE: We have subsequently found problems with the region subclasses when we attempted to project this coverage. A message alerts that an unclosed region was detected. However, REGIONERRORS reports no unclosed region detected for this coverage. The DROPFEATURES command can be used to delete a region subclass from this coverage before projecting.
   

3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

1. How well have the observations been checked?

2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

   fuzzy tolerance 8 m weed tolerance 0.862 m Approximately 51 meters, assuming source data meets National Map Accuracy Standards

3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

   Based on published BLM surface and mineral management status maps; however, some of the data are more recent than the published maps. The more recent data are based on master title plats and information from State and other Federal agencies.

5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

   Polygon topology present.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: None

Use_Constraints:

The surface and mineral management status are published as general planning and management tools. The official land records in the respective offices of the Bureau of Land Management or other Federal agencies should be checked for up-to-date status on any specific tract of land.

1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
   U.S. Geological Survey, Central Energy Resources Team
   c/o Laura R.H. Biewick
   P.O. Box 25046, MS 939
   Denver, CO 80225
   USA
   

   (303)236-7773 (voice)
   lbiewick@usgs.gov
   

2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

   USGS Open-File Report 98-102a

3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

   Disclaimer: Any use of trade, product, or company names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

4. How can I download or order the data?
   • Availability in digital form:

     Data format:	ARC/INFO coverages, export files, and ArcView project (version ARC/INFO 7.0.4, ArcView 2.1) Size: 11
     Network links:	<http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/fedland/prb_own.html>

   • Cost to order the data: none

5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?

   need ARC/INFO 7.0.4 or greater and/or ArcView 2.1 or greater and/or ArcExplorer (which can be downloaded free from <URL:http://www.esri.com>) and/or other software that can read ARC/INFO coverages or ARC/INFO export files

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:

Last modified: 17-Dec-1997
Last Reviewed: 21-Sep-2000

Metadata author:

U.S. Geological Survey, Central Energy Resources Team
c/o Laura R.H. Biewick
P.O. Box 25046, MS 939
Denver, CO 80225
USA

(303)236-7773 (voice)
lbiewick@usgs.gov

Metadata standard:

Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)