Kansas Roads

Click on Photos for larger view.
		Kansas farm roads divide the fertile fields and pastures into squares called sections. Each section is one square mile and is normally bordered on each side by a road. These sections were designed for ease of writing legal descriptions and were invented by Thomas Jefferson and eventually legislated in the Land Ordinance of 1785. After land was purchased or ceded, the land was surveyed prior to sale or settlement. The survey divided the land into mile sections of 640 acres. Each six miles square, or 36 sections, was considered a township. Four of the sections were reserved by the government for later sales and section numbered sixteen was reserved "for the maintenance of public schools." Because of the ease of giving directions following these squares, it is not unusual for children to learn the directions of north, south, east or west before they learn left or right. Giving or receiving directions is easy, "Go three miles south, two miles west and back one quarter a miles north. You'll find their farm on the east side of the road."