Public Land Survey System

Public Land Survey System

The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is the surveying method used historically over the largest fraction of the United States to survey and spatially identify land parcels before designation of eventual ownership, particularly for rural, wild or undeveloped land. It is sometimes referred to as the rectangular survey system (although non rectangular methods such as meandering can also be used). The survey was "the first mathematically designed system and nationally conducted cadastral survey in any modern country" and has been cited as "an object of study by public officials of foreign countries as a basis for land reform." Much of the actual surveying was done in the nineteenth century under a contract system managed by the General Land Office (GLO). Required and suggested survey methods changed over time, as described in a series of Instructions and Manuals issued by the GLO beginning in 1851, although the basic framework has remained substantially unchanged since the several experimental methods were first used in Ohio, the first state surveyed under the system the latest edition being the "The Manual of Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States, 20089989" available from the U.S. Government Printing Office.