okiesurveyor

Have you ever wondered what all of those letters and numbers on your deed description mean? Or why most of the roads in Oklahoma are one mile apart? This is the first in a series of articles to familiarize you with the system by which we convey your most valuable commodity, your land. In the late 1800’s government surveyors were commissioned to lay out the public lands (Oklahoma Territory) into a grid in preparation for sale or grant to the public. These grids were to be 6 miles square and were known as townships. They would be later divided into 36 smaller units, which are our modern day sections of 640 acres each. In most areas they were then divided into even smaller squares or Quarter Sections (160 acres). Iron posts were set at the corners of the townships and stones were placed at all of the section and quarter corners. Some of these stones can still be found today if the area is wooded or otherwise has not been disturbed. The point of origin of these sections is known as the

When the original government surveyors began the task of laying out (surveying) the public lands of Oklahoma, one of their instructions was to make each section as close to 640 acres as possible. excerpt from the BLM manual of Survey Instructions Chapter 1-21. The basic provisions require that the public lands "shall be divided by north and south lines run according to the true meridian, and by others crossing them at right angles, so as to form townships six miles square;" that "the townships shall be subdivided into sections, containing as nearly as may be, six hundred and forty acres each;" and that "the excess or deficiency shall be specially noted, and added to or deducted from the western and northern ranges of sections or half-sections in such townships, according as the error may be in running the lines from east to west, or from south to north." The system of rectangular surveys fits the basic requirements to the curved surface of the globe.