Section Lines for Dummies

Public Lands Survey System (Jeffersonian)

Different members of the research staff at the Antisocial Network approach their search for DotD in different ways. Some find likely candidates and track them across the internet to wherever they drop their stink bombs of information. Others choose a random topic and see where it takes them. That last is how one of them turned up Alexis W.¹ at WiseGEEK.com: she just followed the helpful links at the bottom of the page until she found something stupid: "What is a Section Line?" (now at AboutMechanics.com for no known reason).

W's problem, it seems, is that there are many different meanings of the phrase "section line." Alexis, however, immediately zeroed in on surveying and maps (which, to be honest, is right where our staffer went, too). According to her post,

"A section line is used in land plotting as the means of showing a viewer the distinct property line between two separated land plots. A section line is also used in mass-land survey applications as a means of narrowing down the amount of terrain that must be surveyed at a time. "

Wow: now that is an interesting way of describing a section line. Wrong, too: for one thing, a section line is not the same thing as a property line. For another, just WTF does "separated land plots" mean, anyway?

No, what Alexis was apparently attempting to describe is an (imaginary) reference line in a land-survey system. In the case of the Jeffersonian survey system, the section is the smallest division in the township and range system, and a section line is grid line that defines the boundary of a section. That was probably what W was trying to say here:

"These lines are used to show the surveyor the amount of variance in the elevation or terrain within each section, which in most standard surveys is a measure of 1 square mile (259 hectares)..."

...although "variance" has nothing to do with the survey system.

We aren't certain, but we think that Alexis conflated "section line" with "line of section" in both that strange construction and in the rubbish about "mass-land survey applications" – one never knows. Sadly, W made some (semi-)valid points in the remainder of her (his) post, such as,

"The use of a section line method for creating square mile grid patterns greatly reduced any confusion that may have been created by a survey that was based on misshapen sections that had no true mileage or dimensional reference."

Had Alexis been more aware of how surveying works, s/he would have known just how stupid the notion of a survey with "no true mileage or dimensional reference" is: the definition of surveying includes "dimensional reference." What makes the Jeffersonian survey system more useful than other methods is that it is externally referenced (no "start at the town square") and employs standardized bearings and distances. All lines are (grid) north-south and east-west, and wherever possible distances are standardized.

Alexis failed to recognize these factors, instead pounding out a mishmash of disconnected and poorly-reworded rubbish. For the quality of this freelancer work, W (and editor Heather Bailey) are hereby named our  Dumbass of the Day. Had Alexis used the word "Jeffersonian" or somehow referenced the Public Lands Survey System, we might have been inclined to leniency; but noooo.... ¹ Based on quality and style, we're fairly sure this author is "Alexis Writing" from eHow, except for one problem. It's possible that Alexis Writing is a consortium of untalented freelance hacks.

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