# How Land Is Surveyed in Arkansas: Reading a Legal Description

> Arkansas land surveys explained for mineral owners: Where the Fifth Principal Meridian starts, and all four quadrants are in use. What the legal description on your deed or division order actually means, and where to look the records up free.

Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/land-survey/arkansas/
Publisher: Berlin Royalties, a veteran-owned oil and gas mineral and royalty buyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, buying for its own account since 2014. Call or text 918-984-1645.
License: free to quote and cite with attribution to Berlin Royalties and a link to the source URL.

Land Surveys · Arkansas

## How land is surveyed in Arkansas

Where the Fifth Principal Meridian starts, and all four quadrants are in use. Here is what the legal description on your deed, lease or division order is actually telling you, and where to check it for free.

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**Arkansas uses public land survey system.** Where the Fifth Principal Meridian starts, and all four quadrants are in use.

## The principal meridian

A principal meridian and its base line are the origin of a rectangular survey. Township and range numbers count outward from that origin, which means the same township and range numbers repeat under every meridian. The meridian is the part of the description that says which grid you are on.

- **Fifth Principal Meridian** (1815). Its initial point is in Arkansas, established in October 1815 where Monroe, Lee and Phillips Counties meet. It governs land from Arkansas north to the Canadian border.

## What we see go wrong in Arkansas

Arkansas is the origin of the grid that also runs Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas. The practical trap is that Arkansas townships are numbered both north and south of the base line and both east and west of the meridian, so all four quadrants are in use inside one state. Dropping the N or S or the E or W from an Arkansas description leaves you with up to four candidate parcels, which is not true in North Dakota where everything is north and west.

## Where to look it up, free

- [Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands historical documents](https://history.cosl.org/). Original surveyor field notes, 1870s transcriptions and original plat maps. Some field books have been lost

- [BLM General Land Office Records](https://glorecords.blm.gov). Patents

Deeds are with the county circuit clerks and recorders.

### Send us the description and we will read it back to you.

What it covers, how many net mineral acres it actually is, and whether anything is producing on it. Free, no obligation, and the answer does not change if you never sell anything to us. We do this every day and it usually takes us an hour.

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## Related

- [How land is surveyed in every state we work in](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/land-survey/)

- [The interactive section, township and range map](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/section-township-range-map/)

- [Arkansas mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/arkansas/) and the [Arkansas owner's guide](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/guide/arkansas/)

- [How to find out if you own mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/find-out-if-you-own-mineral-rights/)

- [Depth severance](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/depth-severance/) and [the Duhig rule](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/duhig-rule-overconveyance/)

- [The mineral glossary](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/glossary/)

Compiled from BLM, state land offices, state archives and statute, current as of 2026-08. Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm or a licensed surveyor. Nothing here is a boundary opinion, and a description that matters to a transaction should be run by a title attorney or a licensed surveyor in the state where the land sits.