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Permalink Reply by HMI on March 20, 2010 at 9:10

Found what I needed here: http://www.dotd.la.gov/planning/mapping/home.aspx

Click the "Accept" button for a list of maps.

Just in case any of you are looking for something similar. Good find.

FYI ...GeoCommunicator.gov was wrong the way it had it formatted. Pays to double check maps. :-)

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Permalink Reply by S.H.M. on March 21, 2010 at 9:23

Great Maps! Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by HMI on March 21, 2010 at 12:47

Thanks ...and You're welcome! :-)

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on March 21, 2010 at 17:35

This is actually a complicated question. Look up Public Land Survey System (PLSS) on Google and Wiki.

Most of the country is divided into townships, ranges and sections to give 1 square mile sections. Some parts of Louisiana were already divided up before the US took over and started dividing up the Louisiana landscape. Some parts of Louisiana are not divided up according to PLSS. Your part of Sabine parish is one of these areas.

Even though your area is really not marked out into township, range, and section
(TRS), some things are done with a "pseudo" PLSS section number laid out according to how they would be laid out if it was done with PLSS. You may find more than one TRS designation for your area. One data source may list your area as something like T9N, R14W, S39, and something else may list it as T9N, R14W, S10.

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Permalink Reply by HMI on March 21, 2010 at 17:43

You're right Mac. Another one that can be confusing is Natchitoches Parish. All shapes and sizes. Interesting though. There's history there. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Belmont Boy on March 21, 2010 at 18:03

Mac, you bring up an interesting point. I've noted many maps drop TRS designations for a significant portion of land in central to west Sabine Parish. There is only a line running from northwest to southeast. Starts up in DeSoto Parish and runs to just south and west of Belmont in Sabine, and then turns west all the way to Toledo Bend. I'd always understood the lines represented the boundaries of one of the old Spanish Land Grants. Do you know if there's any truth to this? What caught my attention a year or so ago was the fact comments made by lease agents seemed to indicate they were using the supposed land grant line as the cut off for leasing. That is, they wouldn't go west of it. Of course, they've now moved beyond that. But, should there be any significance attached to the presence of the land grant line, if that's what it is? Thanks for your comment...

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on March 22, 2010 at 13:22

Most of that is in past my depth. One thing I've noticed is that the "bogus" section numbers have numbers higher than 36, even if there's only one or two within the township and range in question. "Real" PLSS section numbers only go as high as 36.

I presume it's some sort of land division done before the US took over in Louisana. It could be French or Spanish.

Learn to use the township and section overlays on the SONRIS interactive maps. The topo map overlays (Maps 1:24,000) are also quite useful. The SONRIS site is actually quite useful for non mineral related mapping questions.

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