when a township map references section 16, what is it referring to?

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One foursquare mile

Perfectly square 160-acre quarter sections of farmland embrace Central Indiana.

Satellite image of crops growing in Kansas, mainly using center pivot irrigation. The chief grid pattern is of quarter sections ( 1⁄2 mi × one⁄2 mi (800 grand × 800 m)).

In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a department is an area nominally ane foursquare mile (two.6 square kilometers), containing 640 acres (260 hectares), with 36 sections making up ane survey township on a rectangular grid.^[i]

The legal description of a tract of land under the PLSS includes the name of the state, name of the canton, township number, range number, section number, and portion of a department. Sections are customarily surveyed into smaller squares by repeated halving and quartering. A quarter section is 160 acres (65 ha) and a "quarter-quarter department" is xl acres (16 ha). In 1832 the smallest area of country that could exist acquired was reduced to the forty-acre (sixteen ha) quarter-quarter section, and this size parcel became entrenched in American mythology. Later on the Ceremonious State of war, freedmen (freed slaves) were reckoned to be cocky-sufficient with "40 acres and a mule." In the 20th century real estate developers preferred working with 40-acre (xvi ha) parcels.^[2] The phrases "front end 40" and "back twoscore," referring to subcontract fields, indicate the front and back quarter-quarter sections of state.

Ane of the reasons for creating sections of 640 acres (260 ha) was the ease of dividing into halves and quarters while even so maintaining a whole number of acres. A section can exist halved seven times in this style, down to a 5-acre (2 ha) parcel, or half of a quarter-quarter-quarter section—an easily surveyed 50-square-chain (two ha) area. This system was of peachy practical value on the American frontier, where surveyors often had a shaky grasp of mathematics and were required to work quickly.^[2]

A description of a quarter-quarter section in standard abbreviated form, might look like "NW 1/4, NE i/four, Sec. 34, T.3S, R.1W, 1st P.One thousand." or, alternatively, "34-3-1 NW4NE4 1PM". In expanded grade this would read "the Northwest quarter of the Northeast quarter of Section 34 of Township 3 South, Range 1 West, first Principal Top".^[3]

History [edit]

The existence of section lines made property descriptions far more straightforward than the quondam metes and bounds organisation. The institution of standard e-west and north-southward lines ("township" and "range lines") meant that deeds could exist written without regard to temporary terrain features such as trees, piles of rocks, fences, and the similar, and exist worded in the way such as "Lying and being in Township 4 North; Range 7 Westward; and being the northwest quadrant of the southwest quadrant of said section," an exact description in this case of 40 acres, equally there are 640 acres (260 ha) in a square mile.

The importance of "sections" was profoundly enhanced past the passage of "An Ordinance for ascertaining the style of disposing of lands in the Western Territory" of 1785 by the U.Due south. Congress (see Country Ordinance of 1785). This law provided that lands outside the then-existing states could non be sold, otherwise distributed, or opened for settlement prior to being surveyed. The standard way of doing this was to divide the land into sections. An expanse six sections by half-dozen sections would define a township. Inside this surface area, one section was designated as schoolhouse country. As the entire parcel would non exist necessary for the school and its grounds, the balance of information technology was to exist sold, with the monies to go into the construction and upkeep of the school.

Roads and urban planning [edit]

Numbering within a township [edit]

Every township is divided into 36 sections, each ordinarily 1 mile (1.six km) square. Sections are numbered boustrophedonically inside townships^[3] as follows (northward at pinnacle):

6	5	4	3	2	1
seven	8	9	10	11	12
18	17	16	15	14	13
19	twenty	21	22	23	24
thirty	29	28	27	26	25
31	32	33	34	35	36

Section subdivisions [edit]

Sections can be divided into quarter sections of 160 acres (65 ha), named by intercardinal direction (northwest, northeast, etc.). For instance, the southwest quarter of a section is named SW 1/four.^[4]

Sections tin be further broken upward into xl-acre (xvi ha) blocks, or quarter-quarter sections. These add together a second intercardinal direction characterization. For instance, the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter department mentioned to a higher place is labeled SE 1/4, SW 1/iv:^[4] ^[5]

NWNW	NENW	NWNE	NENE
SWNW	SENW	SWNE	SENE
NWSW	NESW	NWSE	NESE
SWSW	SESW	SWSE	SESE

Measurement anomalies [edit]

The curvature of the earth makes it incommunicable to superimpose a regular grid on its surface, every bit the meridians converge toward the North Pole. As the U.S. is in the Northern Hemisphere, if a section's or township'south east and due west sides lie along meridians, its north side is shorter than its southward side. As sections were surveyed from south and east to north and west, accumulated errors and distortions resulted on the north and w lines, and north and w sections diverge the most from the ideal shape and size.

The entire township grid shifts to account for the globe'south curvature. Where the grid is corrected, or where two grids based on different principal meridians run into, section shapes are irregular.

Sections as well differ from the PLSS platonic of one square mile for other reasons, including errors and sloppy work past surveyors, poor instrumentation, and difficult terrain. In addition, the principal survey tool was the magnetic compass, which is influenced by local irregularities.

Once established, even an imperfect grid remains in force, mainly because the monuments of the original survey, when recovered, hold legal precedent over subsequent resurveys.^[iii]

Alternatives and legacy systems [edit]

The Public Land Survey Organisation was non the first to define and implement a survey grid. A number of similar systems were established, often using terms like section and township but not necessarily in the same way. For example, the lands of the Holland Purchase in western New York were surveyed into a township filigree earlier the PLSS was established. In colonial New England land was often divided into squares called towns or townships, and farther subdivided into parcels chosen lots or sections.^[two]

Sections are also used in land descriptions in the portion of northwestern Georgia that was formerly part of the territory of the Cherokee Nation. They are not, nonetheless, office of the PLSS and are irregular in shape and size. See Cherokee County, Georgia for more than information on the historical reasons for this.

Another exception to the usual use of sections and section numbering occurs when about of a parcel, or lot, falls under a body of water. The term "authorities lot" is used for such parcels and they are unremarkably described separately from the rest of the section using single numbers (such as "Government Lot v of Section 15"). Also, parcels inside a platted subdivision are ofttimes specified past lot number rather than using PLSS descriptions.^[3]

Where Spanish state grants in Florida have descriptions that predate PLSS or fifty-fifty the U.S. itself, deviation from typical section numbering and size and shape often takes place. In an effort to honour these land grants subsequently the U.South. took control of Florida, surveyors would use descriptions from confirmed land grants to establish their initial boundaries and created PLSS sections that extrapolated from those lines. Often, the corporeality of state left over in areas immediately surrounding the grants was grossly undersized or awkwardly shaped. Those tracts are referred to as "fractional sections" and often are not discipline to township or range definitions. An example of such a legal description's showtime would read "Beingness a portion of Fractional Sec. 59, Township 0 South, Range 0 Westward".

Also, land northward of the Watson Line near the Georgia border was non bailiwick to the standard U.Southward. section, township and range designations, since the Country of Georgia had claimed and laid out counties and surveyed its public lands southward to that line into what eventually became role of the State of Florida. The exact location of the Georgia–Florida land line was ultimately confirmed by an Act of Congress, approved April 9, 1872.

References [edit]

^ White, C. Albert (1983). A History of the Rectangular Survey System (PDF). Washington, D.C.: U.s. Bureau of Land Management.
^ ^a ^b ^c Linklater, Andro (2002). Measuring America: How the The states Was Shaped By the Greatest State Sale in History . Plume. pp. 72, 166, 234. ISBN0-452-28459-seven.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Muehrcke, Phillip C.; Muehrcke, Juliana O.; Kimerling, A. Jon (2001). Map Use: Reading, Analysis, and Interpretation (fourth ed.). JP Publications. pp. 234–239. ISBN0-9602978-five-5.
^ ^a ^b "Tutorial on the Public Land Survey System Descriptions" (PDF). Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2020-01-fourteen .
^ Murray, William Gordon (1969). Farm Appraisal and Valuation (5th ed.). Ames: Iowa State University Printing. p. 53. ISBN9780813805702. OCLC 246381719.