What Is a Range in Real Estate? Township, Section, and Legal Descriptions

In real estate, a range is a six-mile-wide column of land measured east or west from a principal meridian under the Public Land Survey System. Paired with a township number (the north-south row) and a section number (the square mile within the grid), it tells you exactly where a parcel sits. Ranges show up on deeds in roughly 30 states, mostly in the West and the South, so if you’re reviewing a legal description for rural land in those regions, you’ll see a range number on it.¹

What a Range Measures

Every PLSS survey starts at a single initial point, where a principal meridian running true north-south crosses a baseline running east-west. From that point, surveyors mark range lines every six miles going east and west, and township lines every six miles going north and south. The grid of six-by-six-mile squares that results is the backbone of the system.²

The range is the east-west half of that address. Range 1 East is the first six-mile column immediately east of the principal meridian. Range 2 East is the next column. The numbering runs the same direction going the other way: Range 1 West, Range 2 West, and so on. Higher range numbers sit farther from the meridian.

How Range Combines With Township and Section

A range number by itself only tells you one coordinate. You need the township number for the other. “Township 3 North, Range 4 East” names the square three rows north of the baseline and four columns east of the principal meridian. Because there are 37 named principal meridians across the country, each governing its own survey region, the description always names which meridian is being used.²

Each six-by-six-mile township contains 36 sections, each nominally one square mile, or 640 acres. Sections can be divided into aliquot parts: a quarter-section is 160 acres, a quarter of that is 40 acres, and so on down. Each piece is identified by its position within the section, written with compass directions like “NW¼” for the northwest quarter.²

Reading a Full Legal Description

A PLSS legal description reads from the smallest parcel outward to the largest grid reference, ending with the principal meridian. A typical description looks like this:

NW¼, Sec. 12, T. 1 N., R. 2 E., Boise Meridian, Idaho²

Decoded piece by piece:

NW¼ is the northwest quarter of the section, a 160-acre parcel.
Sec. 12 is Section 12 within the township.
T. 1 N. means Township 1 North, the first row of squares north of the baseline.
R. 2 E. means Range 2 East, the second column of squares east of the principal meridian.
Boise Meridian, Idaho identifies the principal meridian anchoring the whole survey.

When a description nests parcels, like “SE¼ of the NW¼,” read it inside-out. Start with the northwest quarter of the section (160 acres), then take the southeast quarter of that piece. You end up with a 40-acre parcel sitting in the north-center of the section.

Why Ranges Aren’t Perfectly Uniform

Meridian lines converge as they move north, so a flat six-mile grid laid over a curved planet would gradually pinch inward. To keep ranges close to their intended width, surveyors establish guide meridians and standard parallels every 24 miles from the initial point. At each correction line, the range boundaries reset to the full six miles.²

Because of this, sections along the north and west edges of a township are often slightly irregular and can’t be cleanly divided into standard aliquot parts. Those odd parcels are designated as numbered “lots” instead, and a lot may contain a little more or a little less than 40 acres. Lots also appear where rivers, lakes, or earlier surveys interrupt the grid.²

Where Ranges Don’t Apply

Not every state uses the PLSS. Properties along the Atlantic seaboard, plus Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Texas, and Hawaii, generally rely on older metes-and-bounds descriptions that use landmarks, distances, and compass bearings. If your property sits in one of those states, you won’t find a range number on the deed, and nothing above applies to your legal description.¹

Why the Range on Your Deed Has to Be Right

Every deed, mortgage, and recorded document touching PLSS land depends on the legal description being correct. Writing “Range 3 West” when the property is actually in Range 3 East points the description to land six miles away from the parcel the parties intended. BLM guidance treats ambiguous descriptions as the raw material of future boundary disputes.³

A wrong range number, a flipped direction, or a misidentified principal meridian can cloud the title and create doubt about what was actually conveyed. Minor errors can sometimes be fixed with a curative affidavit or a corrective deed filed in the land records. When the problem is more serious, or when someone contests the fix, a quiet-title lawsuit may be the only way to clear the record. Title insurers flag these issues during their searches, which is one reason closings occasionally stall over what looks like a small typo.

A street address tells a mail carrier where to go, but it carries no legal weight for defining a property boundary. The PLSS description is what courts, surveyors, and title companies rely on when ownership is at stake. If you’re reviewing a deed or a land contract, confirm that the range number, the direction (east or west), the township, the section, and the named meridian all match the parcel you think you’re buying or selling.

1
U.S. Geological Survey. Do US Topos and The National Map Have a Layer That Shows the Public Land Survey System (PLSS)
2
Bureau of Land Management. BLM Module 2 – The Public Land Survey System Study Guide
3
Bureau of Land Management. Specifications for Descriptions of Land