NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Section (U.S. land surveying)

In U.S. land surveying, a section is an area nominally one mile square, containing 640 acres (2.6 km²). Nominally, 36 sections make up a survey township on a rectangular grid. As the townships are based on meridians (of longitude) which converge towards the north pole, some sections which vary slightly in size are necessary to compensate. These unusually sized sections are generally placed at the western-most or eastern-most edges of townships. Download high resolution version (694x751, 70 KB) SOURCE: http://www. ... Download high resolution version (694x751, 70 KB) SOURCE: http://www. ... In the American Public Land Survey System, a township refers to a unit of land, that is nominally six miles (9. ... This General Land Office map shows the theoretical sectioning of a standard survey township. ... A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. ... An acre is a measure of land area in Imperial units or U.S. customary units. ... In the American Public Land Survey System, a township refers to a unit of land, that is nominally six miles (9. ... Meridian is: Meridian (astronomy): an imaginary circle perpendicular to the horizon. ... Map of Earth showing curved lines of longitude Longitude, sometimes denoted λ, describes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north-south line called the Prime Meridian. ...

The legal description of a tract of land in the parts of the United States that use this system includes the name of the state, name of the county, township number, range number, section number, and portion of a section. Sections are customarily surveyed in halves and quarters, and further subdivision in halves and quarters is common. A quarter quarter section is 40 acres (about 162,000 m²), and is the smallest unit of agricultural land commonly surveyed. The phrases "front 40" and "back 40," referring to fields of crops on a farm, refer to quarter quarter sections. A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... Originally, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count (in Great Britain, an earl, though the original earldoms covered larger areas) by reason of that office. ... Surveying is concerned with the application of mathematics and physics in obtaining accurate measurements for the determination of the position of points on the Earths surface. ...

Contents

1 History

2 Numbering within a township

3 An exception

4 See also

History

The existence of section lines made property descriptions far more straightfoward than the old metes and bounds system. The establishment of standard east-west and north-south lines ("township" and "range lines") meant that deeds could be written without regard to temporary terrain features such as trees, piles of rocks, fences, and the like, and be worded in the style such as "Lying and being in Township 4 North; Range 7 West; and being the northwest quadrant of the southwest quadrant of said section," an exact description in this case of 40 acres, as there are 640 acres in a square mile. Metes and bounds is a system or method of describing land, real property (in contrast to personal property) or real estate. ...

The importance of "sections" was greatly enhanced by the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 by the U.S. Congress. This law provided that lands outside the then-existing states could not 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 area six sections by six sections would define a township. Within this area, one section was designated as school land. As the entire parcel would not be necessary for the school and its grounds, the balance of it was to be sold with the monies to go into the construction and upkeep of the school. The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance) was an act of the Continental Congress of the United States passed on July 13, 1787 under the Articles of Confederation. ... Seal of the Congress. ... The term township generally means the district or area associated with a town. ...

In many jurisdictions, roads were run along every section line, giving access to previously remote areas and serving in many instances as firebreaks. In some locales, these lines were designated as the basis for a street numbering system; in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for example it can be correctly assumed that 190th Street is exactly seventeen miles beyond 20th Street, each "block" representing one-tenth of a mile. A firebreak is a usually-man-made gap in vegetation that is expected to slow or stop the progress of wildfires. ... Downtown Tulsa Tulsa is the second-largest city in Oklahoma. ...

Numbering within a township

Every township is divided into 36 sections, each usually one-mile square. Sections are numbered within townships as follows (north at top):

 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 18 17 16 15 14 13 19 20 21 22 23 24 30 29 28 27 26 25 31 32 33 34 35 36

An exception

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, however, part of the PLSS and are irregular in shape and size. See Cherokee County, Georgia for more information on the historical reasons for this. Alternate meanings: Cherokee (disambiguation) The Cherokee are a people native to North America who first inhabited what is now the eastern and southeastern United States before most were forcefully moved to the Ozark Plateau. ... Cherokee County is a county located in the Georgia. ...