N.Y. Canal Law § 24: Making and recording maps

§ 24. Making and recording maps. There shall be kept on file in the

office of the corporation complete maps of every canal now or hereafter

to be built on which the boundaries of every parcel of land to which the

state shall have a separate title shall be designated and the names of

the former owner and date of each title entered. All such maps

heretofore approved by the commissioner of transportation or the

corporation, or certified by such commissioner, corporation or by the

state engineer or hereafter approved by the corporation to be correct,

shall be presumptive evidence of the truth of the facts therein stated

and of the ownership by the state of the lands therein described. Every

such map when completed shall be approved and certified to as correct by

the corporation. The original of said map shall be filed in the office

of the corporation and copies thereof duly signed and certified as

aforesaid shall be filed in the office of the department of state. Any

such maps filed in the office of the clerk of a county in which such

lands are located or in the office in such county where conveyances are

required by law to be recorded shall constitute evidence to all persons

of the state's title to and ownership in said lands. A transcript of

such maps certified as correct by the officer with whom such map or maps

shall be filed, shall be received as presumptive evidence of the state's

title to the canal lands as of the date designated on such maps in all

judicial or legal proceedings.