Gunter’s Chain and the PLSS
The Public Land Survey System or PLSS is familiar to most who have ever done a real estate deal, leased an oil and gas lease, or taken a plane flight over the central US. We’re talking about those roughly one square mile sections you see from 30,000 feet. Have you ever wondered how they were actually surveyed? Most of these surveys are 150 to 225 years old and were measured using 17th century technology. Edmund Gunter developed a surveying tool - a chain consisting of individual links - that provided accurate measurements when held taught. This chain was 66 feet long, so a quarter quarter section would be ideally 10 chains on a side. Township plat maps to this day still contain measurements in terms of chains, where a “perfect section” would measure 80 chains on a side. The chain has an oddly metric aspect to it - each chain is divided up into 100 links, so one link is actually 7.92 inches long. Gunter’s Chain was a surprisingly accurate standard and was used right up until 1970 when better methods came along.
Tags: chain, plss, sections, survey, township and range
