From Östelen in Skåne, Sweden
Posted on 03/19/2006 9:24:27 AM PST by SamAdams76
Ok, this is driving me nuts and I can't find this in Google searches.
During the past week, I took a plane trip to the west coast and back and had window seats both times. I notice that most of "fly-over country" features a grid of near-perfect squares from approx. the Mississipi River to the Rocky Mountains.
Apparently these are all roads that are in a criss-cross pattern, intersecting perfectly to create these squares. On most of these squares you can see a single farmhouse with some additional buildings that might be barns, chicken houses, silos, etc.
Was this by design or by accident?
You really notice these over states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, etc. Just an endless parade of perfect squares.
Of course, when you get back east of the Mississipi, the landscape becomes mostly woodlands and irregular winding roads as opposed to perfectly straight roads.
Can anybody here explain?
"I've come across a few of those."
I've seen them in Oklahoma. Yeah, they are pretty interesting.
Oil and gas well sites in the Permian Basin.
From Östelen in Skåne, Sweden
The land surveys are the rectangular grid system. Townships are squares six miles by six, sections are square miles. Subdivisions are aliquot parts of sections. Homesteads were mainly quarters of sections. It's the Federal system.
Once again, Freepers quickly came through. I never fail to be amazed just how educational this forum can be.
I play with it frequently. It's fun to zoom to places in the news. Iraq is really nifty.
The circles are from automatic irrigation.
Do they clear the vegatation from around them, in case of fire?
Yes, they do. During the recent fires in the panhandle, the oil and gas facilities recieved little damage due to the brush and weed management programs in place.
Are you tripping off LSD? LOL
All the land there is on a grid. The grid is laid out in 160 acre sections. Each section is devided in to quarter sections of 40 acres, hence "the lower 40"
Roads tend to run on section lines or east west/north south.
A section was the amount of a homestead or 160 acres given to settlers who would occupy/farm the land.
......everyone farms in a circular manner ....
Think pivot irrigation
I flew from Phoenix back east last week and saw all this in detail. Some irrigate a quarter section and a few irrigate a whole section or 4 times as much.
Isn't that amazing? I used to, and still do, marvel at how very organized it all is. When people arrange their crops in the most benificial way for growing, it turns out to be most beneficial for everyone. More food, beautiful aerial view, and on and on. I've also noticed this to be a HUGE clue regarding what is valued by a particular area. Anyway, Farmers have it down pat, with regard to the ecosystem of life. God Bless our farmers...
I knew a Midwestern sociologist once who made a lot of this. He would disagree with those who have said that it is only obvious from the air. In fact, all of the towns are also laid out in a similar way with streets set at right angles and systematically from Main street. He said that gave us a different mentality and a very precise way of giving directions and talking about where things are. I sold encyclopedias in four midwestern states and knowing the system enabled me to find most addresses.
Many farmers use GPS when cultivating fields.
It aids come planting time; you don't have rows of corn, etc. which converge/diverge from one end of the field to the other.
OMG, I'm laughing so hard I can hardly type!
You see some in Kentucky too, but not a whole lot.
The OLD NORTHWEST TERRITORY, also known as The Ohio Valley, was surveyed in a grid. This is all EAST of the Mississippi River.
Ohio is organized in 5 mile wide/high townships. When you fly over the Indiana/Ohio state lines you can see where the surveys don't quite match up.
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