I have done considerable reading on the history of Arizona. One of the neat features was learning of the Gila & Salt River Baseline and Meridian marker, so named because it is on a prominence at the confluence of those two rivers and thus very easily located. For the curious, look for the hillside where the cheap seats of Phoenix International Raceway are and you can find the monument as a cross made of ceramic tiles around the benchmark to the NE of those chairs. Due to minor errors, it's actually been relocated at least three times, which is kind of funny to think about, given that its supposed to be the primary reference. When I bought a home about three years back, I made sure to look up all the relevant information, including my TS location, section, plat, and lot number and then downloaded a PDF of the plat drawing, showing all the major features and lot divisions along with lot size and specific boundary information (markers and angles from each marker, etc.) Great information for a curious mind!
Wow, this is the best explanation I've found yet. I'm studying for the Real Estate Licensing exam for Salesperson and there's a section on PLSS in the training materials but I found the explanation of the online course I'm taking, too brief and there weren't any images to go with their explanation so I had a look at what's available on RU-vid. After sorting through a few, I found yours and it's the very best explanation of all aspects of what I'm studying in the current chapter. Great job and thanks for posting this explanation online for FREE public access!
BTW, there are several townships in the Sierra Nevada range in California that were so poorly surveyed that they have more than 36 numbered sections. For example, as I recall it, one township south of Sequoia National Park has one section that is not much larger than a normal quarter section and an adjoining section is "L" shaped. Other poorly surveyed townships near Yosemite National Park have sections that are approximately 2 miles north-to-south. There is also some funkiness in Death Valley National Park where the PLSS surveys based on the Mount Diablo B&M meet up with the PLSS surveys based on the San Bernardino B&M. My surveying instructor in college said that quite a bit of the PLSS was actually "surveyed from a saloon" (I'm a California licensed civil engineer and I took two semesters of land surveying in college).
This comment is so right on! I've been doing gold claim research in the Sierra Nevadas and I've come across numerous townships & sections that are poorly defined if they're defined at all and it's a miracle to get quarter data. "surveyed from a saloon". - LOL. That certainly explains a lot.
In the Salt River Valley (aka PHX metro), if you look at a map of the roads in the Mesa area, after they cross south of US 60, either side of Baseline Rd (no points for guessing how it got its name) you'll see them all curve off in the same direction. This is the result of the originally townships for Mesa and Tempe being laid out by surveyors from the US Army corps of engineers who had been using a Gunter chain that had become slightly elongated--by about 2 or 2.5 inches, or about four hundredths of an inch per link, easy to imagine through slight deformation of the link eyes--with extensive use. Over five townships (2400 chains), that little error becomes rather considerably larger. When they discovered the error, they couldn't relocate the town but had to lay out the individual lots of Mesa all over again because the corner marks were all wrong and deeds had to be amended to grant people the proper legal bounds they had purchased. What a mess! The layout for later townships south of the baseline was done correctly, thus the offset in the roads, which were placed along section boundaries. (The east valley is mostly a giant grid, except for subdivisions built since about 1990. Easy to navigate.)
@6:11. Underneath our property there are storm drains leading to a dry well. Can the PLSS tell me where they are located and in what direction they go?
No. The purpose of the PLSS is subdividing land. It has nothing to do with utilities or other man-made features. I suggest starting with whatever local jurisdiction (e.g. county, city, special district, etc.) covers your property to find out what records they may have. I usually start with an engineering department or a public works department. If you can't find any records, you could hire a civil engineer (my profession) and/or surveyor to dig deeper into the records and/or attempt to survey the storm drains. Alternatively, there are services that specialize in locating underground utilities, including some plumbing companies.
This information can be found on maps. It's useful when reading physical maps, but if you would like all of the PLSS data for the US, you can find it on the ArcGIS website www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=019dd6f39fda4d3b811abfab0878b63b
