Township Layout

Public Land Survey System

In theory each township is 6 miles square and is made up of 36 sections, which are each 1 mile square. Each section contains 640 acres. A 40 acre parcel is 1/4 of 1/4 section.

In Nevada we use the Mt. Diablo Base and Meridian (M.D.B.&M.). Mt. Diablo is located in the East Bay area east of Oakland.

A typical description of a 40 acre parcel would be the "NW 1/4 of NE 1/4, Section 22, T.16 N., R. 63 E., M.D.B.&M."

This type of land description goes back to the early U. S. Government surveys, which were not nearly as accurate as is possible today. Not every one of these larger units is exactly square, nor does it contain exactly 36 sections. The discrepancies arise from surveying errors, the curvature of the earth, and natural obstacles such as lakes.

However, the original government survey still has importance, as many modern surveys use Section corners as a starting place from which to run the modern description.

This type of legal description is typically used in rural areas for larger tracts of land.

A section is 1 mile square and contains 640 acres. Smaller units of land are often described by subdividing the section into smaller squares. In the following chart you can see examples of a half section containing 320 acres, a quarter section containing 160 acres, and a quarter of a quarter section containing 40 acres.

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