The township number tells how many units north or south of the base line it is the range number how many units east or west of the principal meridian. Each township was given a township and range number according to how many townships it was away from the intersection of these two lines.
Each township was six miles on a side and was subdivided into 36 sections, each one a mile square.Ī north-south line called a "principal meridian" and an east-west "baseline" were established for each region of the west as it was settled. This plan called for the systematic partitioning of the land west of the Appalachians into square units known as "townships". The United States almost doubled in size from the land gained in the Louisiana Purchase, which resulted in a population increase of around 60,000 new citizens.Ĭongress had recently created the United States Public Land Survey in 1785, otherwise known as the Township and Range System. President, Thomas Jefferson, really outdid himself when he closed the most incredible land deal in U.S. In 1803, American Founding Father and U.S. Previously Known as the Louisiana Territory, the land purchased from the French comprised of appoximately 529,920,000 acres. On the other hand, you may want to account for all potentialities.Shortly after America gained it's Independance, the Township and Range System was created for the purpose of surveying newly acquired lands.
Perhaps your area of interest will not include any of the anomalies I've mentioned. To see this complexity first-hand, Washington state townships/section data can be downloaded here, and here's the metadata. Additionally, there are other types of subdivisions in addition to sections (including donation land claims, federal tracts, and protracted blocks). However, townships and their subdivisions may deviate - both in number and in shape - for a variety of reasons, from the difficulties encountered while surveying through rugged terrain to fraudulent 1800's era survey reports compiled not in the field, but at the local watering hole (or so I've been told - I'm not a surveyor).įor example, in Washington State, half-townships were added to "fill in the gaps" between different initial survey projects that did not properly meet up. To add what Rudy Stricklan states, the nominal township is a square, six miles on a side, containing 36 evenly-divided sections.
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