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Survey township
*** Shopping-Tip: Survey township
'''Survey township''', sometimes called '''Congressional township''', as used by the
United States Public Land Survey System, refers to a square
Conversion of units#Area unit of land, that is nominally six (U.S. Survey) miles (~9.7 km) on a side. Each 36 square mile (~93 km²) township is divided into 36 one-square mile (~2.6 km²)
Section (land) sections, that can be further subdivided for sale, and each section covers exactly 640 acres. To be more precise, the subdivisions of a section are frequently the quarter-section (160 acres) and the quarter-quarter section (40 acres). In the Homestead Act, one quarter-section of land was the amount allocated to each settler. Stemming from this is the expression, "the lower 40", which is the 40 acres on a settler's land that is lowest in elevation, in the direction towards which water drains toward a stream. The townships are referenced by a numbering system that locates the township in relation to a meridian (north-south) and a base line (east-west).
Prior to standardization, some of the
Ohio Lands were surveyed into townships of five miles on each side. These are often known as Congressional Townships.
Survey townships are distinct from
civil townships. A survey township is used to establish boundaries for land ownership. A civil township is a form of
local government. In states that use both forms, civil townships generally use the boundaries established by survey townships. County lines, especially in Western States, usually follow township lines, and this has lead to the large number of square or rectangular counties in the West, which are agglomerations of townships. Other counties may have county lines that form a Jack-O-Lantern tooth pattern of townships.
In Western Canada, they adopted the same survey township format by the Dominion Land Survey and do not form administrative units. These townships also have the area of 36 square miles (six miles by six miles).
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Category:Subdivisions of the United States
Category:Townships
