Government Lot

A government lot is an irregularly shaped parcel within a PLSS section that could not be divided into standard quarter sections during the original survey. Government lots appear wherever the rectangular grid meets an obstruction — a navigable river, a lake shoreline, a state boundary, or the north and west edges of a township where convergence corrections accumulate.

Why Government Lots Exist

The Public Land Survey System assumes a grid of one-mile-square sections, each containing four 160-acre quarter sections. That works on flat, uninterrupted terrain. But when a surveyor's line hits the Missouri River at Section 6, T1N R1E, the grid cannot continue through water. The land between the survey line and the water's edge is what remains — an odd-shaped tract that does not fit any standard aliquot subdivision.

Rather than ignore these parcels, the General Land Office (GLO) assigned them numbered government lots — Lot 1, Lot 2, Lot 3, and so on — within the section. Each lot was individually surveyed and its acreage calculated from the field notes. A government lot might contain 15 acres or 120 acres depending on how much land fell between the standard grid lines and the natural feature.

Where Government Lots Appear

Government lots are concentrated in specific situations:

• Riparian sections — Sections bordering navigable rivers and lakes. The surveyor ran a meander line along the water's edge, and the land between that meander line and the nearest quarter-section line became a government lot.
• North and west township edges — Sections 1 through 6 (the north tier) and Sections 6, 7, 18, 19, 30, and 31 (the west column) absorb the accumulated error from converging principal meridian lines. These sections are often slightly oversized or undersized, and the excess or deficit land is placed into government lots rather than standard quarter sections.
• State and reservation boundaries — Where a state line or Indian reservation boundary cuts through a section at an angle, the resulting fragments become government lots.

How Government Lots Are Numbered

Lot numbering starts at 1 within each section and counts upward. The numbering sequence typically begins in the northeast corner of the section and proceeds west and south, but this is not universal — the original surveyor's field notes are the authority for lot placement and numbering.

A single section might contain both standard quarter sections and government lots. For example, a section along the Mississippi River might have NE and SE quarters (standard 160-acre tracts) on the east side, while the west side — where the river cuts in — is divided into Lots 1 through 4. The lot descriptions coexist with standard aliquot descriptions in the same section.

Government Lots in Legal Descriptions

A government lot description looks different from a standard aliquot description. Instead of directional designations (NE, SW, NWSE), you see a lot number:

• Lot 3, Section 6, T1N R1E, 6th Principal Meridian — An irregular tract along the Missouri River in eastern Nebraska
• Lots 1 and 2, Section 31, T2N R4W, 5th Principal Meridian — Fractional lots on the west edge of a township in eastern Arkansas
• Lot 4, Section 18, T15N R2E, Indian Meridian — A correction lot on the west side of a township in central Oklahoma

The lot number alone does not tell you where in the section the parcel sits or how many acres it contains. That information comes from the original GLO survey plat, which shows the lot boundaries, meander lines, and computed acreage.

Why Government Lots Matter

Government lots create specific challenges in land work:

Title searches — A deed referencing "Lot 3, Section 6" requires the surveyor's plat to confirm exact boundaries. Unlike the NE quarter, which is always the same shape and size, Lot 3 could be any shape and any acreage.

Acreage calculations — Standard quarter sections are exactly 160 acres. Government lots are whatever the survey measured. If you are calculating lease payments, mineral royalties, or crop insurance coverage, you need the actual lot acreage from the plat — not an assumption.

Coordinate conversion — Converting a government lot description to GPS coordinates requires data that accounts for the irregular shape. Township America handles government lot conversions by referencing the original survey geometry, returning the centroid coordinates and actual acreage. Try it with the PLSS converter — enter a lot description like "Lot 3 Section 6 T1N R1E 6th PM" and get the coordinates back.

Government Lots vs. Quarter Sections

Both are valid subdivisions of a PLSS section. In practice, many title documents, drilling permits, and agricultural filings mix the two — a single section can have quarter sections on one side and government lots on the other.

Converting Government Lot Descriptions

If you have a legal description that references a government lot and need GPS coordinates, Township America can convert it to latitude and longitude. The converter handles both standard aliquot parts and government lots across all 30 PLSS states and all 37 principal meridians. For bulk work, the batch converter processes hundreds of descriptions — including mixed lot and quarter-section descriptions — in a single upload.