Rectangular Survey System in United States

Practical Information

Note: Some of this information was last updated in 1982

See Land Description. A rectangular system of survey was devised in the eighteenth century. The survey divided the public lands into rectangular tracts, located with reference to base lines running east and west and prime or principal meridians running north and south. The prime meridians are numbered, as Third Prime Meridian, or named, as San Bernadino Meridian. The rectangular tracts are divided into six mile squares, known as townships. A row of townships running north and south is called a range, and the ranges are numbered east and west from the prime meridians. The townships are divided into 36 sections, each one mile square or 640 acres. The sections are numbered from 1 to 36, beginning with the section in the northeast comer of the township, proceeding west to boundary of the township; the next row is numbered from west to east, and so on. The sections in turn are divided into half and quarter sections, and the quarters into quarter quarter sections, designated by their direction from the center as northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast.

The description of a given five acres of land identified by the rectangular survey system might read like this: “The East Half of the Northeast Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of the Northeast. Quarter of Section One, Township 29 North, Range 14 East of the Third Prime Meridian”.

Land identification in the public land states in which the rectangular survey description is used is precise and orderly; it is possible to designate any plot of land as small as five acres with perfect accuracy; no two parcels are described in exactly the same terms because they are identified with reference to a specific prime meridian.

(Revised by Ann De Vries)

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