# How Land Is Surveyed in Louisiana: Reading a Legal Description > Louisiana land surveys explained for mineral owners: Sections, long lots and confirmed claims, all on the same plat. 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/louisiana/ 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 ยท Louisiana ## How land is surveyed in Louisiana Sections, long lots and confirmed claims, all on the same plat. 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/) **Louisiana uses mixed: plss, arpent long lots and private claims.** Sections, long lots and confirmed claims, all on the same plat. ## The principal meridians 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. - **Louisiana Meridian** (1807). Initial point in Rapides Parish. - **St. Helena Meridian** (1819). Near the East and West Feliciana parish line. ## Land districts, not just township and range Louisiana descriptions frequently carry a land district as well. The State Land Office names six: Northwestern at Natchitoches, North of Red River at Monroe and Ouachita, Southwestern at Opelousas, Southeastern District West of the Mississippi River, Southeastern District East of the Mississippi River at New Orleans, and Greensburg. ## Arpents The arpent is the French unit. A linear arpent is about 192 feet and a square arpent is about 0.85 acre. An 1874 Act of Congress confirming Louisiana Purchase territory titles equates 7,153.32 arpents to 6,085.29 acres, which is the best official equivalence on record. The 1716 French Crown edict allotted riverfront tracts of two to four arpents of frontage by 40 to 60 arpents deep, so that every family reached the river and the levee. Spanish authorities favored ranching and used sitios, varas and ligas instead, particularly across the southwestern prairies. ## How the two systems share a plat American surveyors platted the long lots and approved private claims first, then filled the remaining ground with regular sections. A township normally holds 36 sections. The Louisiana State Land Office states that Louisiana townships often contain over 100 sections of varying sizes, because the irregular claims and long lots are carried on the plat as additional numbered sections. ## Parishes, not counties Louisiana's recording units are parishes, and deeds are recorded with the Parish Clerk of Court. ## What we see go wrong in Louisiana This is the most important note on any of these pages. In Louisiana a mineral interest severed from the surface is a mineral servitude, and under La. R.S. 31:27 a mineral servitude is extinguished by prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years. An out of state heir who inherits the minerals under 40 acres from a 1960s deed may own nothing at all if there was no qualifying use in any ten year window. Louisiana is not a state where a mineral deed runs forever on its own. Second and much smaller: a Louisiana description reading Section 47 is not a typographical error. ## Where to look it up, free - [Louisiana State Land Office historical records](https://wwwslodms.doa.la.gov/HistoricalDocument). Free, images downloadable at no charge. Grants, severance documents, township plats, field notes, tract books, Section 16 school lands and state patents - [BLM General Land Office Records](https://glorecords.blm.gov). Federal patents Deeds are with the Parish Clerks of Court. ### 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/) - [Louisiana mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/louisiana/) and the [Louisiana owner's guide](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/guide/louisiana/) - [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.