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Locating Land in Indiana
by Arnold L. Dean

Note: This article originally appeared in the June 2003 issue of IGS Newsletter under the title "Indiana Land-Locating Oddities."

See an Indiana outline map showing its baselines and meridians (JPG format)

Recently, I was involved in some research for a couple in Iowa. The husband has been a land abstracter for a number of years.

The research involved a family who had been the first purchasers of the land, in the early 1800's, in Union County, Indiana (which is located on the eastern edge of the state).

Together we had pinpointed the Township, Range and Section numbers for the land their ancestor had acquired.

They then wrote to the Bureau of Land Management for copies of the land patents. When they received their copies, they showed them to me, saying that something did not seem right.

When I looked at the land patent copies, I noticed that the Township, Range and Section numbers were what they had asked for, but the land was listed as being in Morgan County, Indiana, not Union County. When I looked at the Indiana maps, I found that Morgan County was in the middle of the state, southwest of Indianapolis.

So this led to my discovery of the puzzling problems presented by the various layouts of land in the eastern and southeastern parts of Indiana.

Congressional Method (U.S. Rectangular Surveys)

These are some things that are important to remember when locating land that was surveyed by the Congressional Land Survey method:

  1. Land is located by Township number, Range number, and Section number.
  2. The Meridian Line--the imaginary line running north-south from which the Ranges are numbered east or west. To avoid mistakes, it is absolutely necessary to know which Meridian Line was used in the legal land description, and whether the land is numbered east or west of this line.
  3. The Base Line--the imaginary line running east-west from which the survey Townships (not to be confused with civil townships) were numbered north or south.
  4. The Section--a six mile by six mile square. Sections were numbered starting in the upper right (northeast) corner going left, then dropping down to the next line and continuing going to the right. This snake-like pattern was repeated until all 36 Sections were numbered, with number 36 being in the bottom right (southeast) corner.

Various land surveys were completed at different times, and under the auspices of various Indian Treaties, and agreements:

--With the Greenville Treaty of 1795, the land west of the Miami River in Ohio, and up to the Greenville Treaty Line was cleared for opening. The land west of the First Meridian in Indiana was surveyed after the land "West of the Miamis" in Ohio.

--The base line for the "West of the Miamis" survey in Ohio was established at the point where the Miami River entered the Ohio River, near the First Meridian (the Indiana-Ohio State Line). So the Townships numbered north from that line, in the very southwestern part of Ohio. And the Ranges numbered east from the First Meridian.

--The Greenville Treaty Line in Indiana begins in the north at the point where the east-west treaty line in Ohio intersected the First Meridian (near present-day Jay County, Indiana), and continued in a south-southwesterly direction to the point on the Ohio River (in Indiana), across from where the Kentucky River enters the Ohio.

The Base Line for this so-called "gore area" of Indiana was established at this point on the Indiana side of the Ohio River (several miles south of the previous survey Base Line). The Ranges in the gore area number west from the First Meridian, and the Townships were numbered north from the Base Line (on the Ohio River).

--The First Meridian is the same as the Ohio-Indiana state line.

--The Second Meridian runs west of Indianapolis, lining up with the western edges of Marshall and Fulton counties, and extending south through the state.

The land in southeastern Indiana, west of the Greenville Treaty Line, was numbered east from the Second Meridian Line. The Base Line for this survey was established near Paoli, Indiana, which places this Base Line about 15 miles farther south than the previous Base Line in the "gore area".

Consequently, the Townships on either side of the First Meridian do not number the same, and the Townships on either side of the Greenville Treaty Line do not number the same-because the three areas were numbered from different Base Lines.

You may be saying to yourself, "So what?" Well, this is what makes for all the confusion when trying to map specific land locations. On the east side of the Greenville Treaty Line, land might be located in Township 13, but on the west side of that same line, it would actually be located in Township 15 or 16. The same is true regarding land along either side of the First Meridian Line.

Confused yet? Let me throw in another factor. The Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809 opened up the land west of the Greenville Treaty Line to the "Twelve Mile Line" for survey and settling. The Twelve Mile Line was established by going at a 45 degree angle from the point where the gore area starts at the First Meridian, and going southwest until you reached a point twelve miles west of the Greenville Treaty Line, running parallel to it until reaching a point in southern Indiana (where it has a boundary coming back toward the northeast).

The area within the "gore area" and within the Twelve Mile Line area was sold was from the Cincinnati Land Office, when the land was first opened. The land west of the Twelve Mile Line in this part of the state was sold from the Indianapolis Land Office, although some of the land west of the Twelve Mile Line in northwestern Randolph County, and the land west of the line in Jay County was first sold from the Fort Wayne Land Office.

So, it becomes clear that it is vital to positively determine the correct legal description of the land you want to find. Having this information correct will determine which survey it was in, and from which land office it was first sold. Without this information being correct, you may receive information or land patents for an incorrect portion of land.

By the way, when I explained this whole "land layout" situation to the land abstracter in Iowa (who has 26 years experience), he said that in all his time in the business, he had never run into a situation similar to this.

So--to make certain you have the correct land located, you need to know:

  1. From which Meridian Line it was numbered.
  2. Whether it was numbered east or west from that Meridian Line.
  3. The Township and Range numbers, and the Section number.
  4. The correct Land Office (from which the land was originally sold), in order to make certain of obtaining the correct records from the Bureau of Land Management.

Note: In southern Indiana, west of the Greenville Treaty Line, there will be Townships numbered "South" of the Base Line. In the other surveys, the Base Line was established at the southern point of the area, so all the Townships were numbered "North.”

Books you might consult, to help clarify this "oddity":