Section Line Trivia

[Stanley M. Morris]

The same is true elsewhere - the main North South street in Indianapolis is
Meridian, being the 2nd Principal Meridian. Denver is laid out on much the
same pattern as is described for Chicago. A main street in Boulder Colo is
Baseline Rd. and on and on...

Stan Morris


>        Jefferson ordered a survey of the Louisiana Purchase (the
>Jeffersonian Survey) that continued the pattern of mile-square sections and
>six-mile-square townships.  And the same pattern was applied to other
>unsurveyed areas of the country.  All over the country, roads were laid out
>on the section lines.  Not surprisingly, the pattern remains more regular in
>some places than in others.
>
>        True Trivia:  The main streets of Chicago are laid out on the
>section-line roads and make perfect one-mile squares, criss-crossed by
>diagonals laid out on other grounds.  North, East, and West of State and
>Madison, the section-line roads are every 800 street numbers -- 800, 1600,
>2400, etc.  The south-side numbers are irregular; the section-line roads are
>Roosevelt (1200), Cermak (2200), 31st, 39th, and every 800 thereafter to at
>least 211th St. in the far south burbs.
>
>At 09:45 AM 8/18/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>     Another correction:  I suppose I am too much a romantic about my home
>>     state of Nebraska.  After reading the correction that I made Friday
>>     afternoon regarding the Mississippi river, I failed to realize that
>>     the geography we now call Nebraska could not have been part of the
>>     Northwest Territory included in the Land Ordinance of 1785.  However,
>>     Nebraska *is* striped by the section lines that I described, but that
>>     is probably due to the Northwest Ordinance (of 1787).
>>
>>     Rob Hotz
>>     Lincoln, Nebraska
>>
>>
>>______________________________ Reply Separator
>_________________________________
>>Subject: Re: Land Ordinance of 1785
>>Author:  Robert Hotz <Robert_Hotz at UNICAM3.LCS.STATE.NE.US> at Internet_Mail
>>Date:    8/15/97 5:07 PM
>>
>>
>>Correction:  I should have said in my last sentence "west *TO* the Mississippi
>>river."
>>
>>Rob Hotz
>>Lincoln, Nebraska
>>
>>______________________________ Reply Separator
>_________________________________
>>Subject: Land Ordinance of 1785
>>Author:  Robert Hotz <Robert_Hotz at UNICAM3.LCS.STATE.NE.US> at Internet_Mail
>>Date:    8/15/97 4:59 PM
>>
>>
>>     Ed Darrell raised the point that "Before there was a First Amendment,
>>     before there was a Constitution, the Continental Congress created an
>>     ordinance to build a system of schools to educate citizens on the
>>     frontier," and that "having this education system has promoted
>>     religious freedom, and we should not dismantle it undeliberately."
>>
>>     I believe Ed is referring to the Land Ordinance of 1785 (predates the
>>     Northwest Ordinance of 1787) during the Confederation period.  Under
>>     the 1785 Act land in the "Old Northwest" was surveyed and sold by the
>>     authority of Congress.  The land was laid out in townships of 36
>>     square miles.  Fly over Nebraska today and you can still see the
>>     square miles clearly cut out by gravel country roads.  In each
>>     township, Congress laid aside one section (one square mile) for the
>>     purpose of providing schools.
>>
>>     How much does modern public education owe to the Land Ordinance of
>>     1785 and how much is the result of *State* constitutions, statutes,
>>     and rules & regulations?  Further, the 1785 act affected only the land
>>     west of Pennsylvania, North of the Ohio river, and West of the
>>     Mississippi river.
>>
>>     Rob Hotz
>>     Lincoln, Nebraska
>>
>
>