Lesson 8: Land Descriptions Flashcards
What are legal descriptions of land based on?
All legal descriptions are based on a survey of the land.
The four common methods in surveying the land are:
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.
What are the quadrangles?
The largest squares measure 24 miles on each side, and are called quadrangles. They are part of Rectangular System or the Government Survey System.
How is quadrangle divided?
Each quadrangle is further divided into 16 squares called townships whose four boundaries measure six miles and run north-south and east-west.
How are columns of townships numbered?
A column of townships is numbered east and west according to its distance from a principal meridian.
What is a principal meridian?
A meridian is an imaginary line running north and south.
There are now 36 principal meridians located in different parts of the United States.
What are ranges?
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.
How are ranges in Colorado numbered?
In most of Colorado, ranges lie west of and are numbered from the 6th principal meridian, which is located near Lincoln, Nebraska.
What is a tier of townships?
A row of townships running east and west
is a tier of townships.
How are tiers numbered?
A row of townships running east and west
is a tier of township and is numbered numerically according to its distance from the baseline.
What is a baseline?
A baseline is an imaginary line running east and west. Baselines and meridians, then, grid the surface of the earth.
What are township lines?
Lines running east and west parallel to the baseline and six miles apart are tier or township lines.
Which is a main baseline in most of Colorado?
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.
What are the closing sections?
The north and west tiers of sections of the township are closing sections.
Area of a township is:
A township is six miles square or 36 square miles (Figure 3) and 23,040 acres.
Township location is described by three things:
Townships are described by the township strip and the range strip in which it is located and the principal meridian for the location.
What is a section?
Each square mile which is equivalent to 640 acres is designated as a section.
How are the sections numbered?
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.
What are metes and bounds?
Metes are measures of length and bounds are boundaries.
When are metes and bounds used?
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.
What is the Point of Beginning?
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.
Which way is metes and bounds measuring performed?
From this marked spot, the surveyor proceeds clockwise and measures each boundary in direction and distance.
What is a Bearing System
Metes and bounds are properly expressed in bearings and distances.
How is bearing system measured?
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.
How is location described in metes and bounds system?
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.
Azimuth system
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.
Recorded Subdivision Plat
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.
Quadrangle size is:
24 mile sq
Township size is:
6 mile sq
Number of sections in a township is:
36 sections
The size of a section is:
640 acres
Acreage of a township is:
23’040 acres
Feet in a mile:
5280
sq feet in an acre:
23’040 sq feet
