PLSS SECTION SUBDIVISION CASE STUDIES AND LOTS, TRACTS, & PARCELS MAN

FOUNDATION TO CURRENT RULES OF SUBDIVISION OF SECTION Manual of Survey Instructions, 2009 Cragin v. Powell Acquired Lands Bona Fide Rights Ownership

Manual of Survey Instructions, Title 43 U.S.C. 752 and 753 (Rev. Stat and 2397) contain the fundamental provisions for the subdivision of sections into quarter-sections and quarter-quarter sections. Sections are not subdivided in the field by Bureau of Land Management cadastral surveyors unless provision is made in the special instructions, but certain subdivision-of-section lines are protracted upon the official plat

In the public land survey system a corner is fixed in position by operation of law. Corners marked in official surveys followed by use are fixed in position by monuments. Only a small portion of corners are marked on the ground in original surveys. Subdivision-of-section corners are generally not marked. Their positions are fixed on the plat by protraction. Their positions are fixed on the ground by the survey process of running (and marking) line between marked corners, and setting monuments.

IN THE CASE OF CRAGIN V. POWELL (128 U.S.691, 696) The Supreme Court said: “It is a well settled principle that when lands are granted according to an official plat of the Survey of such lands, the plat itself, with all its notes, lines, descriptions and landmarks, becomes as much a part of the grant or deed by which they are conveyed, and controls so far as limits are concerned, as if such descriptive features were written out upon the face of the deed or the grant itself.”

FRACTIONAL SECTIONS By law a fractional section is (1) a section containing outlying areas protracted as surveyed, or (2) an invaded section in which at least one quarter-section corner has not been or cannot be fixed.

ACQUIRED LANDS Lands owned and administered by the United States that were not part of the original public domain or such lands that were part of the original public domain but that were alienated and later returned to Federal ownership Can acquire rights/restrictions while alienated from the public domain

OWNERSHIP Protecting Bona Fide rights Public Domain Lands may be re-subdivided within a section, at the discretion of the Chief Cadastral Surveyor

BONA FIDE RIGHTS When any claimant, entryman, or owner has acquired bona fide rights as to location per 43 U.S.C. 772 to certain legal subdivisions, that claimant, entryman, or owner has rights as to the location of the identical ground location as represented by the same subdivisions upon the official plat, controlled by monuments on the ground.

TRACTS, LOTS, AND PARCELS Special surveys may involve areas of land that are not aliquot parts of sections but are designated as tracts, lots, or parcels.

TRACTS 10-2 In common usage, the term “tract” is applied to an expanse of land of no particular size, often irregular in form. In modern Federal land surveys, the term is used specifically to mean an expanse of land that lies in more than one section or that cannot be identified in whole as a part of a particular section. It is properly described by tract number and township. Tracts within a township are numbered beginning with 37 or the next highest unused numerical designation to avoid confusion with section numbers. Tracts that have been segregated in the course of an independent resurvey are treated as described under that subject.

LOTS 10-3.A “lot” is an irregular expanse of land with a Federal interest lying entirely within a surveyed section. Small expanses of land, when not aliquot parts of sections, are designated as lots wherever they can be identified as parts of a section. The description is by lot, section, and township.

PARCELS 10-4.A “parcel” is a special designation used for identification of an expanse of land. Parcels may include land with no Federal interest and should be so designated except in independent resurveys, or if the proper name is “Tract _____.” To distinguish among several parcels, they may be called “Parcel A,” “Parcel B,” and so on. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) does not modify land descriptions of alienated lands. The designation of alienated land as a parcel is for administrative purposes only and as a reference to the existing land description of the parcel. It does not change the chain of title.