Legal Land Descriptions
Any parcel of land in the United States has been assigned a “parcel number” and this is based
upon the Rectangular System of land survey. This allows the public to locate or describe a given
parcel on a map for the purposes of legal ownership, property taxes, or other such purposes.
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A legal description gives the breakdown of a parcel from the smallest division up to the
largest. To locate a parcel on a map, start at the end and work to the beginning
To describe a parcel on a map, start at the beginning and work to the end
The divisions, from largest to smallest are:
Township: 6 square mile tract of land that is located by finding the Tier Number (North/South)
and the Range Number (East/West)
North
T5N
R2W
T1N
R1E
Tiers
T2S
R4E
T4S
R4W
South
West
Ranges
East
Section: 1 square mile tract of land that is located within a Township by an assigned number
that will range from 1 – 36.
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
Tracts: Sections are further broken down into smaller tracts of land which can be 1/2 sections,
1/4 sections or any combination required to get to the smallest parcel of land.
NW1/4 of
Section 9
9
A complete legal description of the shaded parcels above would be:
NW1/4, Section 9, T3N, R3W
E1/2, SE1/4, SE1/4, Section 9, T3N, R3W
Exercises:
Shade in the following described parcels of land that lie in
the Township T4S, R1E:
6
S1/2, Section 9
7
NW1/4, NW1/4, SW1/4, Section 35
18
19
Write a legal description for the shaded areas:
A: ________________________________________
B: ________________________________________
30
31
5
4
3
2
1