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

> Kansas land surveys explained for mineral owners: One meridian, one grid, essentially no overlay. 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/kansas/
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 · Kansas

## How land is surveyed in Kansas

One meridian, one grid, essentially no overlay. Here is what the legal description on your deed, lease or division order is actually telling you, and where to check it for free.

[Ask a Landman, Free](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [What Are My Minerals Worth?](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/)

**Kansas uses public land survey system.** One meridian, one grid, essentially no overlay.

## 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.

- **Sixth Principal Meridian** (1855). Also governs Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

## What we see go wrong in Kansas

Kansas is the cleanest state we work in. Because a Kansas description rarely needs a meridian call, people get used to leaving it off, and then the same habit follows them into a Colorado or Wyoming instrument where the meridian decides which parcel you are talking about.

## Where to look it up, free

- [Kansas Historical Society land survey plats](https://www.kansashistory.gov/p/kansas-land-survey-plat-maps-and-field-notes/19971). Original GLO plats, field notes and tract books, plats digitized

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

Deeds are with the county Registers of Deeds.

### 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.

[Ask a Landman](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/)

## 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/)

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

- [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.