Updates, insights, and technical notes from the founder of Legal-Plot.
Metes and bounds is the oldest form of land description used in the United States. Understanding its structure — bearings, distances, monuments, and closure — is the foundation for reading any deed or title document.
The Public Land Survey System divides 30 states into a grid of townships, ranges, and sections. It is the spatial backbone behind nearly every rural legal description written west of Ohio.
Closure is the mathematical test that tells you whether a metes and bounds description is internally consistent. Here is how it is computed, what the numbers mean, and when a high misclosure is actually expected.
Section corners, quarter corners, sixteenth corners, meander corners — each PLSS monument type plays a specific role in tying a metes and bounds description to the ground. Here is how each type is identified and used.