Township (United States)
A township in the United States is a small geographic area. Townships range in size from 6 to 54 square miles (15.6 km² to 140.4 km²), with 36 square miles (93 km2) being the norm.
The term is used in three ways.
- A survey township is simply a geographic reference used to define property location for deeds and grants as surveyed and platted by the General Land Office (GLO). A survey township is nominally six by six miles square, or 23,040 acres.
- A civil township is a unit of local government. Civil townships are generally given a name, sometimes abbreviated "Twp".
- A charter township is similar to a civil township, found only in the state of Michigan. Provided certain conditions are met, a charter township is mostly exempt from annexation from contiguous cities or villages, and carries additional rights and responsibilities of home rule.
Read more about Township (United States): Survey Townships, Civil Townships, Charter Townships, Census Statistics, Usage By State
Famous quotes containing the word township:
“A township where one primitive forest waves above while another primitive forest rots below,—such a town is fitted to raise not only corn and potatoes, but poets and philosophers for the coming ages. In such a soil grew Homer and Confucius and the rest, and out of such a wilderness comes the Reformer eating locusts and wild honey.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)