Public Land Survey System

The Public Land Survey System, which was first proposed by Thomas Jefferson and enacted into law by the Land Ordinance of 1785, forms the backbone of the Nation's land surveys.

Over the past two centuries, almost 1.5 billion acres have been surveyed into townships and sections and monumented. This impressive accomplishment represents the greatest land surveying project ever undertaken: there are about 2.6 million section corners throughout the United States, each one located about a mile apart. Placing these corners required a vast expenditure of human energy in carrying heavy surveying equipment, dragging chains, cutting trails, climbing mountains, placing monuments, digging pits, and blazing "witness" trees.

It's now been 150 years since the General Land Office surveyed the township exteriors in northern Wisconsin. The skills necessary to "follow in the footsteps" of the original surveyors should be viewed as most important when judging the qualifications of a professional land surveyor.

Did you know?

To legally survey a 40 acre tract such as the NW1/4 of the SE1/4 shown below requires a survey of almost the entire section!

Consider the minimum steps that are necessary:

1. Recover original government corners 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8. These are corners established by the General Land Office during the mid to late 1800's. This is without question the most important and many times the most time consuming aspect of a survey. In northern Wisconsin, the original surveys are approaching 150 years old with the evidence of these surveys becoming increasingly difficult to recover.
2. Establish the center of the section (A) which is the intersection of straight lines between points 4 and 8, and between points 6 and 2.
3. Establish 1/16 corners B, C, D and E. For example: B being exactly midway between A and 2, etc.
4. Establish the SE 1/16 corner (F) which is the intersection of straight lines between points B and D, and between points C and E.

The above steps are those necessary to mathematically locate the four corners of the NW1/4 of the SE1/4 according to state and federal statutes. Beyond this, the surveyor is many times faced with marking the lines of the parcel (1 mile), and preparing the necessary documentation to file or record the results of the survey with the appropriate county office.

The General Land Office Survey

While the majority of General Land Office surveys were executed with reasonable care, there are exceptions that result in distances, directions and areas that vary wildly from those found on the official plats and field notes.

The following image on the left is that of the original township plat prepared as a result of the General Land Office survey of Township 36 North, Range 10 East of the Fourth Principal Meridian, Wisconsin. The image on the right is that of a resurvey of the same section by former Oneida County Surveyor D.H. Vaughan in 1906!

As depicted on the resurvey, our NW1/4 of the SE1/4 looks more like a diamond than the square intended by the government. For this landowner to assume his or her boundaries are cardinal and 1320 feet in length could easily result in valuable improvements being located off of the intended property.

While this is an extreme example, there are other aspects of the Public Land Survey System that are beyond common knowledge that could result in a similar situation.

A survey by an experienced, qualified surveyor is always a wise choice.

Conceptual guidance provided by the Alaska Society of Professional Land Surveyors.