Quarter Section Finder: Locate Any Quarter Section in the United States

A quarter section is a 160-acre parcel within the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) grid, used across 30 US states including Colorado, Montana, Kansas, and North Dakota. This guide shows you how to find any quarter section by its legal description and get its exact GPS coordinates, map location, and surrounding land details using Township America.

What Is a Quarter Section?

Every section of land in the PLSS grid is divided into 4 quarter sections, identified by compass direction: NE (Northeast), NW (Northwest), SE (Southeast), and SW (Southwest). Each quarter section covers approximately 160 acres.

A quarter section is written in the format Quarter Section-Township-Range-Principal Meridian. For example, NE 31-5N-7W Willamette Meridian refers to the Northeast quarter of Section 31, Township 5 North, Range 7 West of the Willamette Meridian. That's a specific 160-acre parcel in Clatsop County, Oregon.

Quarter section descriptions are critical in oil and gas (for well licenses and surface leases), agriculture (for crop insurance claims and field management), real estate (for rural property titles), and insurance (for claims adjustments on rural properties). If you're working with any of these industries in the western United States, you'll need to find quarter sections regularly.

When You'd Need a Quarter Section Finder

A landman receives a spreadsheet of 50 well site locations listed as PLSS descriptions. To plan site visits, they need the GPS coordinates and driving directions for each one. Or a claims adjuster gets a policy referencing NE 31-5N-7W Willamette Meridian and needs to confirm it's the right parcel before heading out. A real estate agent listing a rural acreage in Clatsop County, Oregon needs to verify the quarter section shown on the deed matches the property they visited.

In each case, the task is the same: take a PLSS description and find exactly where it sits on a map.

How to Find a Quarter Section with Township America

Step 1: Enter the Quarter Section

Go to Township America and type the PLSS description into the search bar. You can use any common format:

• NE 31-5N-7W Willamette Meridian
• NE 31 5N 7W Willamette Meridian
• NE Sec 31 T5N R7W Willamette Meridian

The search tool recognizes all standard PLSS notation styles, so you don't need to worry about exact formatting.

Step 2: Review the Result

Township America returns the GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) for the center of that quarter section. You'll also see:

• The quarter section highlighted on the survey grid map
• The section, township, and range it belongs to
• Satellite imagery (on Pro plans and above)

Step 3: Take Action

From the result, you can:

• Get directions — turn-by-turn navigation to the quarter section center point
• Save the location to your saved places for quick access later
• Export the coordinates as PDF, CSV, KML, or Shapefile (Business tier)
• Convert in bulk — if you have dozens or hundreds of descriptions, use the batch converter to process them all at once

Example: Finding NE 31-5N-7W Willamette Meridian

Say you need to find NE 31-5N-7W Willamette Meridian. Enter it into Township America's search bar. The result shows:

• Location: Northeast quarter of Section 31, Township 5 North, Range 7 West, Willamette Meridian
• GPS: approximately 46.01°N, 123.73°W
• Area: about 160 acres, in Clatsop County, Oregon
• State: Oregon

This is a parcel in the northern Willamette Valley region of Oregon, typical of the areas where PLSS descriptions are used for property titles and timber rights.

Common Mistakes When Searching for Quarter Sections

• Missing the quarter designation: Searching for just 31-5N-7W without specifying NE, NW, SE, or SW gives you the full section (640 acres), not a specific quarter. Always include the quarter.
• Wrong principal meridian: Different principal meridians cover different states. Using the wrong meridian shifts your location to an entirely different state.
• Confusing township direction: T5N (Township 5 North) and T5S (Township 5 South) are on opposite sides of the baseline. Always double-check whether your township is north or south.

If you need to convert a PLSS description to latitude and longitude specifically, see our guide on how to convert PLSS to lat/long. For broader PLSS conversions, check out the PLSS to GPS converter guide.

Find Your Quarter Section Now

Try it yourself — enter NE 31-5N-7W Willamette Meridian into the Township America converter and see the result instantly. Or type in any PLSS description from your own files and get the GPS coordinates in seconds.