Each half or quarter section can be further subdivided into halves and quarters. These smaller parcels are identified by their directional location within the section. INTRODUCTION TO THE US RECTANGULAR SURVEY SYSTEM - Vermessungsseiten Each half or quarter section can be further subdivided into halves and quarters. These surveys, completed between 1848 and May 1857 were primarily on land located between the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers or in the southeastern corner of Minnesota. government survey method - Commercial Real Estate Also Check: Government Regulations For Nonprofit Organizations. This version has a more visual interface, which was optimized to explore the dataset. When identifying property locations, you will always reference which principal meridian it is located near. Each township is further divided into 36 sections of one square mile each, or 640 acres, by horizontal and vertical section lines. It is considered as one of the most significant subdividing of the United States mainland. The legal description includes the state name, the meridian name, the township and range directions, and usually the section number. It references principal meridians and baselines designated throughout the Principal meridians, baselines, and where they intersect (cross each other) are used as the basis for formulating property descriptions in this system. The survey system essentially functions the same way. It was originally proposed by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson as a means of keeping track of the ever-expanding land area of the United States. The township is the basic unit of measurement in the rectangular survey system. Youre likely to see at least a few questions on the real estate license exams on calculating the area of part of a section, and youll also see questions about terminology and some of the measurements that the rectangular survey system uses. These townships are not the same as political subdivisions.\r\n
Each township is further divided into 36 sections of one square mile each, or 640 acres, by horizontal and vertical section lines. Now, the way it really works is for this page to be filled with the lines going up and down and right to left so that you have many townships. First, the system makes it easier to divide large areas of land into like-sized parcels, as large as 640 square miles to as small as 2.5 acres. The Base Line in United States Rectangular Survey System meets its principal meridian at the point of origin, or initial point, for the survey of the land. In other words, after section number 6, it drops down to 7 on the next tier then goes left to right to number 12. Those quadrangles are divided into smaller squares called townships. Standard parallels run east to west along with the baseline. For instance, a quarter section always contains 160 acres, or a fourth of the total 640 acres in a section. Correction lines occur at every fourth township line or every 24 miles north and south of the baseline. TRID Guidelines & Compliance Checklist | What is TRID? Rectangular Survey System - Real Estate - Women's Business Center Accretion, Avulsion & Reliction: Definition & Effects, Extent of Ownership and Real Property: Air, Surface & Subsurface, Real Property vs. Real Estate | Concepts, Terms & Differences. For example, a Bound could be a road, tree, river, or large rock. The townships are consecutively numbered by their location within the intersection of multiple range lines and township lines. You may even see a question or two about the numbering system used for sections. There may also be questions about how much land is in a specific plot or section. Public Land Survey System - Sidwell )
\r\nFiguring out the size of a piece of property, which sometimes is called a parcel, is simple, if you keep in mind that youre always dealing with a section of 640 acres. The sections are number 1 through 36 starting in the NE corner of the section continuing west along the top row. Longitude and latitude are imaginary lines that divide the earth through the north and south poles (longitude) and run parallel with the equator (latitude). The government survey system is known by a few different names. The grid is divided into smaller sections known as quadrangles, townships, sections, half-sections, and quarter-sections, used to describe property boundaries in most of the United States. Using those lines for references, quadrangles are formed, which are smaller squares identifiable by where they are located near the principal meridian and baseline. Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, Different Types of Estates in Real Estate, Legal Description of Property: Definition, Importance & Example, What is a Land Survey? Youre so square more or less The rectangular survey system Continue with Recommended Cookies. This system has also become known as the rectangular survey system and geodetic survey system.. PLSS The Public Land Survey System is a way of subdividing and describing land in the United States. The government rectangular survey method is a legal description for land. Using principal meridians and baselines as points of reference, land areas are divided by two kinds of lines, township lines and range lines. Records kept by the surveyors during the execution of the work varied over time. The Rectangular Survey Method established a standard measurement and origin point for all properties to follow using a grid system. The first is the Metes and Bounds surveythe second is the Rectangular Survey System, also known as the Government Survey System or Public Lands Survey System. As with most things, there are pros and cons of using the Rectangular Survey System. The section in the bottom left corner, the southwest corner, is section 36. Sections can be divided in several ways, but basically for purposes of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), they are divided in quarter sections.\r\n \t