One grid, run a very long way north from Arkansas. Here is what the legal description on your deed, lease or division order is actually telling you, and where to check it for free.
North Dakota uses public land survey system. One grid, run a very long way north from Arkansas.
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.
North Dakota holds roughly 1,800 full and 140 partial townships. The southernmost tier is T. 129 N., about 774 miles north of the Arkansas initial point, and the northernmost is T. 164 N. The easternmost range is R. 47 W. Every North Dakota township is T. __ N., R. __ W. The surveys ran from 1867 to 1906, nine standard parallels cross the state, and the seventh became the North Dakota and South Dakota line.
An heir looking at T. 152 N., R. 96 W. has not misread anything. The real acreage problem here is government lots. Curvature and measurement error get pushed into the north tier and the west range of every township, so sections along those edges are fractional and are described as numbered lots rather than quarter quarters. A Lot 3 up there is not 40 acres, and net mineral acre math done as though it were will come out wrong.
Deeds are with the county recorders. There is no free statewide deed portal.
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 Get a Free ValuationCompiled 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.