From builders, contractors, developers and the city, state and federal ordinances alike, the
importance of the public land survey is an incremental part of how our society functions.
This is for so many different and very good reasons, too. Imagine a world where there
was no order to the way that land was developed and built. You could have volatile
structures that were sitting on volatile lands that could have the under makings for the
spelling of disaster. Herein lays the power and the practical applications of such surveys.
They serve a wide function of purpose in today’s ever evolving society, and they have for
hundreds upon hundreds of years, dating back to the times prior to the Revolutionary War
that liberated the United States from the British Empire. If you have ever wondered what
these surveys are, or why they are so important, there are numerous reasons as to why
they are. So let us delve into this topic and enlighten ourselves just as to why.



Explaining What a Public Land Survey Is
Perhaps the best way to explain to just what these surveys comprise of is to quote the
experts. One encyclopedia describes them as, “An object of study by public officials of
foreign countries as a basis for land reform.” In the United States there is actually a very
refined and advanced system that is used for such surveys that is called the Public Land
Survey System (PLSS). Whenever the federal, state or city ordinances – as well as county
ones – decide that they going to build something, or they are going to allow something to
be built at a certain location, generally speaking, a survey of the land is required. From
the eyes of the governing bodies, such surveys serve to allow them to really know how to
intricately design cities, streets, highways, walkways, bridges, buildings, canals, and just
about anything else that you could ever imagine being built. One of the first thing that
usually occurs is a survey of the land, or street, or what have you, that is in question.



Where Such Surveys Emanate From
To better control the designs and schematics of anything that was being built during the
time, the origins and really the first practical applications of these public land surveys
dates ways back to the late 1700s. Around 1785 the Land Ordinance was passed by the
then Continental Congress. And shortly thereafter, in 1787, they passed another one that
was called the Northwest Ordinance. The government cited that the reasons for passing
such laws into legislation was in essence, “To control the survey, sale, and settling of the
new lands.” The passing of these laws could not have come at a better time for the
expanding United States and the Great Settlement of lands, not to mention how many
wars would be fought over the well built settlements that would adhere to these new
survey standards as the rise of the American empire began.