"The rectangular survey system extends across the land in huge networks of lines.  These are not imaginary lines; they are real lines that have been surveyed by many men.  They cross open prairies, swamps, canyons, and mountains.  They are blazed through forests and cut narrowly through nearly impenetrable brush.  They are marked by stakes, pits, mounts, marked stones or iron posts."  (Cazier)

Most early Colonial American surveys were metes and bounds surveys (metes and bounds surveys are described in a following section).  Then, authorized in the 1785 Land Ordinance, the U.S. rectangular survey system was established.  The new system was designed to lay out square parcels over all of the Federal lands outside of the original thirteen colonies and their western territories.

The first rectangular surveys were conducted in Ohio beginning where the west boundary of Pennsylvania crossed the north shore of the Ohio River.  By 1805 the survey system was stabilized and surveys spread westward.  In 1812 Congress created the General Land Office to manage the surveying and focus on land conveyance.  The first consolidation of officially authorized Federal surveying procedures, the Oregon Manual of Surveying Instructions was published in 1851.  Nine subsequent revisions have led to the Manual of Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands Of The United States, 1973, which itself is currently in revision.  Today, the rectangular survey, also known as the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), is overseen by the U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.

The PLSS is based upon three principles in land administration:

1. survey the land before it is conveyed
2. a mathematically designed plan to be followed throughout the entire area of the public domain
3. creation of a standard land unit, the section, of uniform shape and with boundaries physically marked on the ground.

"Surveying, in general, is the art of measuring and locating lines, angles, and elevations on the surface of the earth, within underground workings, and on the beds of bodies of water.  A 'cadastral survey' creates (or re-establishes), marks, and defines boundaries of tracts of land.  In the general plan this includes a field-note record of the observations, measurements, and monuments descriptive of the work performed and a plat that represents the cadastral survey, all subject to approval of the Director, Bureau of Land Management."  (Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1973)

The PLSS states are the Public Domain states shown below:

The thirty states shown above created out of the public domain are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.