Public Land Survey System

I am familiar only with the PLSS but I was curious how Texas’s system works. From what I saw on the GIS map viewer, each county is broken up into smaller plots that were based on the spanish land grants and, I am guessing, that those plots were named after the first families the land grants were given to at the time? For example I saw there is a plot, Leming in Atascosa County. Here are some more questions: How big are those plots? Do you still describe smaller tracts using SE 1/4 NE 1/4 nomenclature or is there a different way (Basically, if you had a tract, what would the oil companies use for the legal description of the tract on a lease? or what is the Texas synonym for NW1/4 of T152 R93 S3 for example?) If someone could direct me where to go to satisfy my curiousity or answer this, It would be greatly appreciated. THanks

Also, I forgot to add that I was looking at the Texas Railroad Commission website and trying to figure out the production query at:

http://webapps.rrc.state.tx.us/PDQ/quickLeaseReportBuilderAction.do

Does the website refer to oil wells as "oil leases"?

Oil wells are reported on the lease level in TX, so yes…they will be referred to oil leases. Gas wells are reported on the well level. This means you can pull gas production on a well by well basis but you can only pull oil production for an entire lease, which may be comprised of one or many wells. This is just the way it is in TX.

Philip Mollner said:

Also, I forgot to add that I was looking at the Texas Railroad Commission website and trying to figure out the production query at:

http://webapps.rrc.state.tx.us/PDQ/quickLeaseReportBuilderAction.do

Does the website refer to oil wells as "oil leases"?

Tracts are described using the Railroad Surveys. Nothing like Oklahoma where most sections are based on a 640. There is no standard sized tract for these surveys. It seems intimidating initially but not so bad once you become accustomed to it. You need to get a survey map and look it over. Have fun.

Texas was once part of the Kingdom of Spain. Then the Empire of Mexico. Then its own Republic, then it entered the United States by treaty. Then part of the Confederate States of America and back to the United States. (Oh, and portions claimed by France at one time)

When Texas was part of Spain, then Mexico, land grants were given to settlers to encourage settlement, especially along its frontier. To do so would discourage (in theory) intrusion by other political entities, be it French, English, Spanish or United States.

Typical grants were a league of land, or a labor of land, or both. A league of land is 5000 varas square (appx 4428 acres). I labor of land is 1000 varas square (appx 177 acres). Depending on family size, you could receive a league, a labor, or both. Then you went out, selected your land and had it surveyed. Earlier on, the labor would be riparian land.

The survey name was named either after the original patentee, or the original grantee or the surveyor. For example, Gail Borden and Stephen Austin were surveyors by trade. There are tons of Borden and Austin surveys in Texas.

When Texas gained its independence from Mexico, the treasury did not have enough money to pay its troops, so they were paid in land script, which they had surveyed and generally quickly sold for hard money. The amount of land in which the fighters were paid, was according to rank.

After Texas became a State, it still had beaucoup of unsurveyed, unpatented land. In order to encourage commerce, Texas made a deal with the railroad companies. If you lay one mile of track, you must survey two square miles of land for each mile of track and you will get to retain one square mile, which the railroad generally very quickly sold to pay for the mile of track they laid. This is where the railroad surveys came in - a hundred years or more since the first surveys in Texas.

I believe it was Jefferson who developed the SEC TWN RNG system.

Texas, when it entered the union by treaty, retained title to its land, rather than having the union have title to its properties. In all other states, patents are from the United States. In Texas, patents are from either Spain, Mexico, Republic of Texas, or State of Texas.

Texas has an awkward system to land description, but its workable. Finding a 160 acre survey in a county is much more difficult in Texas than in the rectangular coordinate system.


Stephanie Wilbanks, CPL said:

Tracts are described using the Railroad Surveys. Nothing like Oklahoma where most sections are based on a 640. There is no standard sized tract for these surveys. It seems intimidating initially but not so bad once you become accustomed to it. You need to get a survey map and look it over. Have fun.

A lot of information but greatly appreciated. I noticed that the GIS map viewer does show the surveys if you zoom in far enough. Are the surveys broken up into smaller tracts or lots then? If this is the case, is the legal description of land just an percentage interest in one of these tracts in the survey? Also, where do you get maps of each individual survey? Do the counties have them online or do you have to pay for them? Thanks once again for your help. I have been confined to ND and wanted to expand my understanding of some other states survey systems

If I understand your request, the surveys are subdivided based on the surface ownership, and the most common place to see the surface ownership is at the county appraisal district. If one landowner owns the whole survey, there will be no further subdivision. Some appraisal districts have their maps online. Also, you can get many plats of surveys at the general land office online. You can also see or order county maps -- many historical in nature --- at the general land office as well.

Sorry for being so verbose above, but the history is important to understand how the Texas surveying system got to where it is today. Saying that they came from little green men or whatever is just not accurate.

What I did forget to add earlier, was that a league of land was generally considered sufficient to run cattle. A labor of land was sufficient for farming. Incidentally, labor is Spanish for "work" - I guess Spain did not think that ranching was work. Only farming. lol.

Philip Mollner said:

A lot of information but greatly appreciated. I noticed that the GIS map viewer does show the surveys if you zoom in far enough. Are the surveys broken up into smaller tracts or lots then? If this is the case, is the legal description of land just an percentage interest in one of these tracts in the survey? Also, where do you get maps of each individual survey? Do the counties have them online or do you have to pay for them? Thanks once again for your help. I have been confined to ND and wanted to expand my understanding of some other states survey systems

Thank you Mr. Cotton. Your response definitely satisfied my curiosity

How do they determine the size of the spacing units for horizontal wells in Texas? Do the pool all the minerals within the survey? (I know it probably depends on the total depth of the well) I was also looking some of the files online for some horizontal wells and noticed that some of the wellbore files have surveys, abstracts, blocks and surveys. I understand what the surveys/abstracts refer to but are the abstracts subdivided into blocks and the blocks subdivided into sections?