With little power to tax, the federal government decided to use the sale of the Western Territories to pay off war debt. The Confederation Congress was deeply in debt following the Declaration of Independence. The Land Ordinance of 1785 marks the beginning of the Public Land Survey System.

Before this could happen, the land needed to be surveyed. The government wished both to distribute land to Revolutionary War soldiers in reward for their services and to sell land as a way of raising money for the nation. Originally proposed by Thomas Jefferson to create a nation of ' yeoman farmers', the PLSS began shortly after the American Revolutionary War, when the federal government became responsible for large areas of land west of the original thirteen states. History Map of territorial growth 1775 Northwest territory Monument referencing the beginning point of the PLSS Today, the BLM controls the survey, sale, and settling of lands acquired by the United States. The Surveyor General was later merged with the General Land Office, which later became a part of the U.S. Following the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, the Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory platted lands in the Northwest Territory. Beginning with the Seven Ranges in present-day Ohio, the PLSS has been used as the primary survey method in the United States. Also known as the Rectangular Survey System, it was created by the Land Ordinance of 1785 to survey land ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, following the end of the American Revolution. The Public Land Survey System ( PLSS) is the surveying method developed and used in the United States to plat, or divide, real property for sale and settling. System of dividing land in the United States This 1988 BLM map depicts the principal meridians and baselines used for surveying states (colored) in the Public Land Survey System.

Township range land survey system