Willamette Land Survey Stone State Historical Site, Portland, Oregon

This video features the Willamette Stone State Heritage Site. It is located in the Northwest part of the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area (at the end of a path that goes down a hill in a wooded area). The historical area is the primary location point that determines surveys for all properties within the states of Oregon and Washington. The center point of this square concrete pad is a round metal marker--attached to a square-shaped remnant of the basalt Willamette Stone. Originally, a cedar stake marked this point (placed by the Surveyor General of the Oregon Territory in 1851). But the wood stake was replaced by a small basalt obelisk in 1885 (formally called the Willamette Stone). However, the Willamette Stone obelisk was mostly lost through vandalization in the 1980s. This resulted in the marker today--that is still regarded as the Willamette Stone.
The monument relates to the American survey system known as "township", "section", and "range"--which covers most of the United States. [Except for the original 13 American states (which had adopted a European survey system) and Texas (with either a Spanish, or railway, survey system)]. Township and range was designed as a simplistic system of square areas that could be easily subdivided. This enabled a mapping system for land planning and land sales during the great expansion of United States across the North American Continent (and Alaska).
The surrounding 10- by- 10 foot (3- by- 3 meters) concrete pad, contains inlaid brass line areas, lettering, numbers, and a larger brass plaque:
--Part A) The key inlaid brass lines divide the square concrete pad into quarters--based on the orientation of the intersecting "Willamette Base Line" and the "Willamette Meridian". These are the principle survey lines, that extend from the point of origin (the Willamette survey stone) to the east-west, and north-south.
--Part B) Additional brass markers in the concrete pad, include the formal abbreviated divisions, known as "townships" and "ranges": "T1N" (township 1 north), "T1S" (township 1 south), "R1E" (range 1 east), and "R1W" (range 1 west). The northeast quarter area relates to the "township and range" area known as T1N, R1E. The southeast quarter relates to T1S, R1E. The southwest quarter relates to T1S, R1W. The northwest quarter relates to T1N, R1W.
-Part C) In the northwest quarter of the concrete pad, is an inlaid brass grid of 36 small squares. These squares represent the 36 individual subdivisions, that are the one-mile square area subdivisions within a typical township (called "sections"). Most townships consist of a 36 square mile area with 36 individual sections (numbered from 1 to- 36). Each one-mile square section typically contains 640 acres. Therefore, a typical 36-square mile township would consist of 23,040 acres. Note: It is common for individual sections to be further subdivided into "half-sections" and "quarter-sections". Quarter-sections often were subdivided into even smaller quarter sections--depending ownership area. Most farms, ranches, mines and other properties were contained within the boundaries of quarter-sections. These survey designations became the official postal address for rural areas of the United States. Starting in the 1963, a postal "Zip Code" numbering system was adopted for urban areas, and later for all rural areas.
--Part D) The brass plaque on the concrete pad shows the numbering system related to the 36 sections within a typical township, and states the following: "WILLAMETTE STONE[:] Beginning here, the Willamette Meridian was established running north to Puget Sound and south to the California border, and the Base Line was established running east to the Idaho border and west to the Pacific Ocean. From these surveyed lines, the lands of the Northwest were divided into townships six miles square beginning at the Willamette Base Line numbering north or south and given a range beginning at the Willamette Meridian numbering east and west. Each full township is divided into thirty-six sections of land one mile square which are numbered starting at the northeast corner of each township as shown in the diagram above. Dedicated by Governor Victor Atiyeh in honor of National Surveyors week, March 11-17, 1984. Sponsored by the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon, the Land Surveyors Association of Washington, The Washington County Surveyor and the Multnomah County Surveyor."
Note that some 1800s land surveys contain surveying errors--because of difficult survey areas containing swamps, forests and mountains. With modern mapping technology, localized adjustments to accommodate surveying errors were made to new maps. Therefore, some townships, ranges, and sections may contain localities with non-standard numbers and perimeters.
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