The publication attempts to reconstruct historical and geographical image of the Altai Mountains using materials of statistical and land surveying expeditions of the end of the 19th — beginning of the 20th centuries. The authors used the region survey final documents as an independent primary source combining features of record management and private origin sources. Among the tendentious factors of the studied materials there can be underlined the presence of ministerial orders and the analysis of historical events and processes in terms of land organization in south-east foothills of Altai. The article stresses the aim of the expedition leaders to form a stable idea about voluntary refusal of indigenous dwellers of from the nomadism and their transition to the settled way of life. The authors analyze characteristics of historical and geographical image, such as land reclamation history, description of its physical and geographic parameters and indigenous population. The sequential analysis allowed the authors to trace the date match occurring in different records.