RMS/Champion International Collection

Materials in this collection are a result of over one hundred years of lumber company interest in the timberlands of East Texas. RMS purchased remnants of large company lands in mostly Polk, Tyler, and Trinity counties in 2006 after years of real estate timberland consolidation and breakup. These lands were the last vestiges of two large corporations – Champion Paper and Fibre Company and Southland Paper Mills. As both of these companies acquired land, they created survey departments to ensure the integrity of their boundaries and kept the records for future use. This collection contains survey field books, monument books, and chain books, as well as survey records, indeed files, boundary and road easement files, and General Land Office maps and files. There is a series of files relating to land purchases by the W.T. Carter Company. Survey index cards and corner cards help tie together the field books, surveys, and maps. Index map books contain references to surveyed lands and refer to field book pages. The extensive collection of rolled maps is unprocessed as of July 2021 but an archivist can provide access. As of January 2022, only the Index maps are available online.