Lesson 8: Land Descriptions

Question 1

What are legal descriptions of land based on?

Answer 1

All legal descriptions are based on a survey of the land.

Question 2

The four common methods in surveying the land are:

Answer 2

The more common methods are:

(1) The United States Governmental Survey System, often referred to as the “rectangular survey system,”
(2) metes and bounds,
(3) recorded subdivision plat and
(4) the Colorado Coordinate System.

Question 3

What are the quadrangles?

Answer 3

The largest squares measure 24 miles on each side, and are called quadrangles. They are part of Rectangular System or the Government Survey System.

Question 4

How is quadrangle divided?

Answer 4

Each quadrangle is further divided into 16 squares called townships whose four boundaries measure six miles and run north-south and east-west.

Question 5

How are columns of townships numbered?

Answer 5

A column of townships is numbered east and west according to its distance from a principal meridian.

Question 6

What is a principal meridian?

Answer 6

A meridian is an imaginary line running north and south.

There are now 36 principal meridians located in different parts of the United States.

Question 7

What are ranges?

Answer 7

The land on each side of a principal meridian is divided into six mile strips by lines running north and south parallel to the meridian. These north-south strips are called ranges.

Question 8

How are ranges in Colorado numbered?

Answer 8

In most of Colorado, ranges lie west of and are numbered from the 6th principal meridian, which is located near Lincoln, Nebraska.

Question 9

What is a tier of townships?

Answer 9

A row of townships running east and west

is a tier of townships.

Question 10

How are tiers numbered?

Answer 10

A row of townships running east and west

is a tier of township and is numbered numerically according to its distance from the baseline.

Question 11

What is a baseline?

Answer 11

A baseline is an imaginary line running east and west. Baselines and meridians, then, grid the surface of the earth.

Question 12

What are township lines?

Answer 12

Lines running east and west parallel to the baseline and six miles apart are tier or township lines.

Question 13

Which is a main baseline in most of Colorado?

Answer 13

In most of Colorado, the main baseline follows a course approximating the 40 degrees line of latitude which is located just north of the city of Brighton in Adams County.

Question 14

What are the closing sections?

Answer 14

The north and west tiers of sections of the township are closing sections.

Question 15

Area of a township is:

Answer 15

A township is six miles square or 36 square miles (Figure 3) and 23,040 acres.

Question 16

Township location is described by three things:

Answer 16

Townships are described by the township strip and the range strip in which it is located and the principal meridian for the location.

Question 17

What is a section?

Answer 17

Each square mile which is equivalent to 640 acres is designated as a section.

Question 18

How are the sections numbered?

Answer 18

Sections within a township are numbered from the northeast corner, following a back and forth course, until the last section in the southeast corner is reached.

Question 19

What are metes and bounds?

Answer 19

Metes are measures of length and bounds are boundaries.

Question 20

When are metes and bounds used?

Answer 20

Metes and bounds are used in Colorado when it is necessary or desirable to describe a tract with irregular boundaries not conforming to the rectangular system.

Question 21

What is the Point of Beginning?

Answer 21

tracts of land are surveyed and described by metes and bounds–usually by identifying the Point of Beginning and the boundaries in relation to an established corner or line of the governmental survey.

Question 22

Which way is metes and bounds measuring performed?

Answer 22

From this marked spot, the surveyor proceeds clockwise and measures each boundary in direction and distance.

Question 23

What is a Bearing System

Answer 23

Metes and bounds are properly expressed in bearings and distances.

Question 24

How is bearing system measured?

Answer 24

The direction of a line–its bearing–is stated in terms of the angle it makes with the meridian, or north and south line. The Bearing System divides a circle into four quarters of 90 degrees each: NE, NW, SE, SW.

Question 25

How is location described in metes and bounds system?

Answer 25

A location is described in degrees and fractions of a degree (minutes and seconds) from the cardinal directions of north or south; never from the cardinal directions of east or west.

Question 26

Azimuth system

Answer 26

The Azimuth System is almost the same as the Bearing System. It -differs from the Bearing System in that it expresses all directions in terms of the angle from one direction only through 360 degrees.
It is seldom used in formal descriptions.

Question 27

Recorded Subdivision Plat

Answer 27

A survey is conducted and a map called a subdivision plat is made which, when recorded, creates and identifies smaller parcels of land such as blocks and lots.

Question 28

Quadrangle size is:

Answer 28

24 mile sq

Question 29

Township size is:

Answer 29

6 mile sq

Question 30

Number of sections in a township is:

Answer 30

36 sections

Question 31

The size of a section is:

Answer 31

640 acres

Question 32

Acreage of a township is:

Answer 32

23’040 acres

Question 33

Feet in a mile:

Answer 33

5280

Question 34

sq feet in an acre:

Answer 34

23’040 sq feet