Public Land Survey System: Quarter-quarter sections (TRSQ), Minnesota

The TRSQ digital data set represents the Township, Range, Section, Quarter section, and Quarter-quarter section divisions of the state. Beginning in the late 1840s, the federal government began surveying Minnesota as part of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). The resulting network of land survey lines divided the state into townships, ranges, sections, quarter sections, quarter-quarter sections and government lots, and laid the groundwork for contemporary land ownership patterns. The quarter-quarter section remains an important subdivision for rural Minnesota since these lines are used to define local boundaries, roads, and service areas. All survey lines were extended across water bodies despite the fact that U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) base maps depict them only on land. This addition allows all sections and townships to be represented as closed areas ensuring that township and range location can be determined for any point in the state. It also means that the data is not affected if lake levels change over time. The township, range and section boundaries were digitized at MnGeo (formerly the Land Management Information Center - LMIC) from the USGS 30' x 60' map series (1:100,000-scale). Quarter section and quarter-quarter section subdivisions were calculated using the section lines. They were not digitized from original plat book survey lines or from the meandered lines that surveyors laid out around water bodies. The existence of government lots within a quarter-quarter section is recorded in the data set; however, the government lot boundaries were not digitized. If a quarter-quarter section contains more than one government lot, the number of lots is recorded -- see Lineage, Section 2, for more detail. Note: For most uses, TRSQ has been superseded by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) 1:24,000-scale 'Control Point Generated PLS' data set which is free online. See https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/plan-mndnr-public-land-survey for more information. Also, many county surveyors offices have more accurate PLS (Public Land Survey) data sets. For county webpages and contact information, see http://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/cty_contacts.html .

Data and Resources

This dataset has no data

Field Value
access_constraints ["Use Constraints: Redistribution conditions: In obtaining this data from MnGeo, it is understood that you and/or your organization have the right to use it for any purpose. If you modify it, you are encouraged to apply responsible best practices by documenting those changes in a metadata record. If you transmit or provide the data to another user, it is your responsibility to provide appropriate content, limitation, warranty and liability information as you see fit.", "Access Constraints: None"]
bbox-east-long -89.0
bbox-north-lat 49.5
bbox-south-lat 43.0
bbox-west-long -97.5
contact-email gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
coupled-resource []
dataset-reference-date [{"type": "publication", "value": ""}]
frequency-of-update asNeeded
graphic-preview-description Portion of TRSQ showing quarter-quarter, section, township and county boundaries, including labels.
graphic-preview-file ftp://ftp.lmic.state.mn.us./pub/data/admin_poli/trsq.gif
licence ["MnGeo's data disclaimer is online: http://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/disclaimer.html "]
metadata-date 2015-05-05
metadata-language eng; USA
metadata_type geospatial
progress completed
resource-type dataset
responsible-party [{"name": "Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo)", "roles": ["pointOfContact"]}]
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-97.5, 43.0], [-89.0, 43.0], [-89.0, 49.5], [-97.5, 49.5], [-97.5, 43.0]]]}
spatial_harvester true
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • geo
  • geoss
  • national
  • north-america
  • united-states
isopen False
metadata_created 2025-11-21T18:40:35.851843
metadata_modified 2025-11-21T18:40:35.851847
notes The TRSQ digital data set represents the Township, Range, Section, Quarter section, and Quarter-quarter section divisions of the state. Beginning in the late 1840s, the federal government began surveying Minnesota as part of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). The resulting network of land survey lines divided the state into townships, ranges, sections, quarter sections, quarter-quarter sections and government lots, and laid the groundwork for contemporary land ownership patterns. The quarter-quarter section remains an important subdivision for rural Minnesota since these lines are used to define local boundaries, roads, and service areas. All survey lines were extended across water bodies despite the fact that U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) base maps depict them only on land. This addition allows all sections and townships to be represented as closed areas ensuring that township and range location can be determined for any point in the state. It also means that the data is not affected if lake levels change over time. The township, range and section boundaries were digitized at MnGeo (formerly the Land Management Information Center - LMIC) from the USGS 30' x 60' map series (1:100,000-scale). Quarter section and quarter-quarter section subdivisions were calculated using the section lines. They were not digitized from original plat book survey lines or from the meandered lines that surveyors laid out around water bodies. The existence of government lots within a quarter-quarter section is recorded in the data set; however, the government lot boundaries were not digitized. If a quarter-quarter section contains more than one government lot, the number of lots is recorded -- see Lineage, Section 2, for more detail. Note: For most uses, TRSQ has been superseded by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) 1:24,000-scale 'Control Point Generated PLS' data set which is free online. See https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/plan-mndnr-public-land-survey for more information. Also, many county surveyors offices have more accurate PLS (Public Land Survey) data sets. For county webpages and contact information, see http://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/cty_contacts.html .
num_resources 0
num_tags 8
title Public Land Survey System: Quarter-quarter sections (TRSQ), Minnesota