Public Land Surveying System

PLSS

Metes and Bounds

• A way of dividing up land based on physical features in the environment, such as trees, streams, boulders, etc.

• Can cause disputes between neighbors and weirdly shaped land boundaries

PLSS

• Dividing up land based on a organized system

• A base line and a meridian line (remember from western hemisphere geography) is how the state is sectioned off laid out in the Northwest Ordiance

Land Ownership/House Deeds

• "Lying and being in Township 4 North; Range 7 West; and being the northwest quadrant of the southwest quadrant of said section,“

• Exact descriptions of ownership of land