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Noticed the Street Grid in Kansas

Started by roadman65, September 25, 2021, 09:49:52 AM

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roadman65

https://www.ksdot.org/Assets/wwwksdotorg/bureaus/burTransPlan/maps/county-pdf/butler.PDF
If you look at KDOT's map of Butler County, KS you will see how all the county roads are set off in a perfect grid. All running N-S and E-W and each one having set distances between them and all blocks square in rural areas.

Reno County nearby and Sedgwick is the same.

Most states don't bother in rural areas to have a street grid layout. In fact property owners have to pay to build their own roads. Yet some Kansas Counties have and usually have four parcels of land in each square of even acres.

Interesting.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe


FrCorySticha

#1
Looks like the standard section grid of 640 acres, which is 1 mile square. These sections are often subdivided into quarters of 160 acres, hence the four parcels of land. Lots of other midwestern and western states use the same grid, though section line roads are often abandoned in less populous areas.

EDIT: As I look closer, it is a standard section grid with townships. Within each section is a number that counts between 1 and 36, and township identifiers "T # E" and "R # S" based off the meridians and baselines. So, if you owned land near Whitewater, KS, the deed would include whatever quarter and possibly quarter of a quarter within "S18, T24S R3E". More info from Wiki

It was not uncommon for the counties to establish roads along the section lines. However, as I stated above, many became abandoned as homesteads merged into larger farms.

NE2

pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

Scott5114

Quote from: roadman65 on September 25, 2021, 09:49:52 AM
Most states don't bother in rural areas to have a street grid layout. In fact property owners have to pay to build their own roads. Yet some Kansas Counties have and usually have four parcels of land in each square of even acres.

That's not true at all. Most states in this part of the country do this. Oklahoma is the same way.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

skluth

You will find county-wide grids are in most places beyond the original 13 states. (Maine and Vermont which were claimed by other states don't have county grids either.) Exceptions are mostly settlements like Green Bay, St Louis, and New Orleans are examples where the original founders were French and the old roads follow the French Long Lot system. Once away from long lots, the grid concept first laid out by the Northwest Ordinance bills can be found over most of the rest of the US.

The basics of the Northwest Ordinances should have been taught in your junior high Civics class. It was in mine, but I'm retired so maybe this important info was dropped from modern curriculums.


bugo

These are just section line roads. which are common in large areas of the plains states and other parts of the country. In Tulsa, the main streets (11th, 21st, 31st, etc) and avenues (Peoria, Harvard, Yale, Sheridan, Memorial, Mingo, Garnett, etc) are section line roads. They are exactly one mile apart. Sometimes, when I'm driving across town on the surface streets I will either turn or go straight depending on whether a traffic light is green or not, because you can "stairstep" your way across town, and there are many different ways you can go to get there, and the distance is the same no matter which route you use.

US 89

Quote from: Scott5114 on September 25, 2021, 01:42:13 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on September 25, 2021, 09:49:52 AM
Most states don’t bother in rural areas to have a street grid layout. In fact property owners have to pay to build their own roads. Yet some Kansas Counties have and usually have four parcels of land in each square of even acres.

That's not true at all. Most states in this part of the country do this. Oklahoma is the same way.

Oklahoma even has a statewide system for numbering them. (At least I assume it's statewide... from what I've seen it looks like the origin is the northwest corner of the state.)

As for where section-line roads are used... well, you can find them more or less anywhere in yellow on this map where it's flat:



Even in places both rural and urban where a neat mile grid is not immediately obvious, it's fun to look at PLSS survey maps and see how many roads actually follow section lines. It's more than you think.

Scott5114

Quote from: US 89 on September 26, 2021, 01:20:30 AM
Oklahoma even has a statewide system for numbering them. (At least I assume it's statewide... from what I've seen it looks like the origin is the northwest corner of the state.)

The system may be statewide (this is the first I've heard of it but I wouldn't be surprised if such a thing exists for survey purposes), but it's not actually signed or used publicly statewide. Most counties use an extension of the numbering system of one of the main cities in the county (Oklahoma County is basically all Oklahoma City anyway, so it continues its grid; Cleveland County uses Norman's grid), or else has its own system (McClain County uses OKC street names for its north-south streets, and numbers starting at 100th Street in the south and continuing northward for its east-west streets; Woods County uses the names of other counties for its east-west streets; Grady County uses a system of east-west county roads and north-south county streets).
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

US 89

#8
I guess I meant statewide not in the sense of "used everywhere in the state" but "used multiple places in the state and based on the same origin point".

Stuff like "NS 419" and "EW 15". Although it does seem, in addition to areas that don't use that system at all, some areas treat those numbers a little differently. That same pair of roads, if it were in Washington County, would probably be signed "N 4190 Rd" and "W 1500 Rd". I feel like I've seen the "E0150 Rd" format someplace as well.

SD Mapman

Quote from: US 89 on September 26, 2021, 02:02:07 AM
I guess I meant statewide not in the sense of "used everywhere in the state" but "used multiple places in the state and based on the same origin point".

Stuff like "NS 419" and "EW 15". Although it does seem, in addition to areas that don't use that system at all, some areas treat those numbers a little differently. That same pair of roads, if it were in Washington County, would probably be signed "N 4190 Rd" and "W 1500 Rd". I feel like I've seen the "E0150 Rd" format someplace as well.
Yeah I think those are in super-rural areas of the state/counties that were too lazy to come up with their own grid. As far as other Plains states go, Kansas doesn't have a grid like that, Nebraska does but it's used in the same way as Oklahoma (some counties use it some don't), and both Dakotas have statewide naming systems used in the vast majority of counties (ND I think only doesn't use it near Fargo and Grand Forks, SD uses it everywhere it can be used i.e. not the Hills).
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. - G.K. Chesterton

will_e_777

#10
It dates back to the early 19th century and Thomas Jefferson with American settlers moving into northwest territory.  New land was surveyed into mile squares, 640 acres, "sections"  and a 6 by 6 grid of these sections are a 36 square mile township.  These 640 acre sections could also be further divided into 1/2 mile square "quarters"  160 acres, or also 1/4 mile squares "eighths"  which is 40 acres. If you've ever heard anything with the term 40 acres in it, this is where it comes from; 1/8 of a "section" .

This surveyed layout was used across most of the unsettled (by Americans) areas of the US.
Rocky Mountain man.



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