Using the NCSS Web Soil Survey

Navigate to a soil survey area or set a soil survey area as your area of interest.

If you know the name of the soil survey area, select the state and soil survey area.

To choose from a list of all soil survey areas that cross a county, select a state and county.

If you want to see the soil survey area boundary lines, check “Show Soil Survey Areas Layer in Map”.

After making your selections, click View to zoom to the selected soil survey area, or Set AOI to set your AOI to the whole soil survey area.

Zoom to a specified latitude and longitude. You can enter either Decimal Degrees or values for Degrees, Minutes, Seconds, and Direction.

After entering degrees of Latitude and Longitude, press View. The specified location will appear in the center of the map, indicated by an orange/red plus sign (+), which will disappear when you zoom in or out or when you set the AOI.

Decimal degrees of Longitude West of Greenwich and decimal degrees of Latitude South of the Equator are expressed as negative quantities.

For example, 46° 48' 0" North Latitude, 100° 47' 0" West Longitude is the same as 46.80° Latitude, -​​100.78° Longitude.

All longitudes in the contental U.S. are negative, except for locations in the far-​​western Aleutian Islands.

To switch to Decimal Degrees mode, press the Use Decimal Degrees button.

To switch to Degrees/Minutes/Seconds mode, press the Use Degrees/Minutes/Seconds button.

To look up the latitude and longitude of a particular location, refer to the USGS Geographic Names Information Service Web site.

Use this form to locate a section or township using the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) .

If you specify the section number, the township number and direction, and the range number and direction, View will zoom the map to the specified section.

If you specify the township number and direction and the range number and direction, but do not specify a section number, View will zoom the map to the specified township.

If you specify only a township number or a range number, with or without a direction, View will display a dialog box containing all matching townships, from which you can select the desired township.

State

Select the state where the township is located. If there is no Public Land Survey System data for the selected state, you will see the message “No PLSS data for state.” In this case, you must locate the piece of land you are looking for by some other means, in the Quick Navigation panel or on the interactive map.

Principal Meridian

Each township was originally surveyed with respect to a principal meridian and baseline. To locate a township, you must specify its principal meridian. If the selected state has only one principal meridian, the Select Principal Meridian control will automatically display it, and you will have no other choices. If the state has more than one principal meridian, you must select one. If you know the principal meridian, select it from the dropdown list. If not, click View Meridian Map. A Principal Meridian Map for the selected state will be displayed. On this map, click the approximate location of the township you are looking for. The principal meridian for that location will automatically be selected, and the Principal Meridian Map will close.

In some cases, the dropdown will list principal meridians that cannot be selected from the map. This generally occurs when a river bounding the state has shifted position since the public land survey was made. In this case, you must determine the appropriate choice for your particular piece of land from external information.

Section

Specify the section. Section is normally a number between 1 and 36, inclusive, but in some locations there are section numbers as high as 98.

In the case of duplicate townships that have sections with the same section numbers, the section number in the non-​​duplicate township has the letter “U” appended. For example, in Colorado, New Mexico Principal Meridian:

Section 6, Township 34N, Range 14W Duplicate

Section 6U, Township 34N, Range 14W

Township

Specify township, a number between 1 and 168, inclusive, with an optional “1/2”, and select a direction north or south of the baseline.

Range

Specify range, a number between 1 and 4117, inclusive, with an optional “1/4”, “1/2”, or “3/4”, and select a direction east or west of the principal meridian.

To uncheck the Township North/South and Range East/West radio buttons, CTRL-​​click them.

Show Public Land Survey Layer in Map

If this box is checked, the township and section boundaries and labels will appear on the map.