[Tijeras_Slim]

All the squares live in the red states.


We are fighting back:


Sincerely,

The Crop Circle Liberation Army.

[The Old Hoosier]

It's by design, surveying of land grants, I believe. Also makes it pretty hard to get lost. :-)

I've always been curious about the fact that everyone farms in a circular manner as you get out toward Western Nebraska and Colorado.

[SamAdams76]

I should also mention that many of these squares have circles in them. It's as if the farmers deliberately plowed their fields in a circular pattern using the center of the square to form a perfect circle within that particular square.

What is that all about?

[A knight without armor]

Because it is too much work to run long spans of barbed wire into a paisley pattern.

[digger48]

The land was all surveyed and plotted using multiples of a rod(16 1/2 feet)

[Sometimes A River]

Are they squares or are they rectangles?

http://www.4554.com/Glossary/RECTANGULAR_(GOVERNMENT)_SURVEY_SYSTEM.html

[patton]

Yes, but - what are the wierd bare patches in west texas/New mexico?

[Tench_Coxe]

As far as the grid pattern, that was done by surveying and land grant. You do see it east of the Mississippi as well, but nowhere near as much.

[mcvey]

You will get a whole bunch of different answers to this because there are a whole bunch of different reasons.

One of them is the way the government surveyed the land when they were selling it or transferring it to railroads to help offset the cost of building railroads across hundreds of mails where few lived (at that time.)

The railroads then did their own surveys which were similar (most of the time) to the government's. As a result each piece of land that was sold was sold as a square so that each piece would be very close in size to each other piece. This saved the government and the railroads from having to go through the time and expense of pricing different lots differently.

A guy by the name of Robert W. Fogel wrote on this a good half-century ago but I have long since forgotten the citation.

McVey

[cripplecreek]

Isn't Wisconsin east of the Mississippi?

[nuconvert]

We're very neat and geometrically oriented out west ;~ )

[Dog Gone]

Dang, you need to visit "flyover country" a little more frequently!

[righttackle44]

"The PLSS typically divides land into 6-mile-square townships, which is the level of information included in the National Atlas. Townships are subdivided into 36 one-mile- square sections. Sections can be further subdivided into quarter sections, quarter-quarter sections, or irregular government lots. Normally, a permanent monument, or marker, is placed at each section corner."

Source:
http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html

[mwyounce]

Look up the Public Land Survey system... Most states after the original 13 Colonies used some form of the PLS.

Surveyors first drew north-south and east-west lines, and then made giant checkerboards to divide the land up into 6 mile by 6 mile squares from those initial lines.

Then each 6x6 square is divided into 36 individual 1 square mile sections. Section 16 was used for education.... Each section is divided into quarters. Each quarter is divided into quarters.

So, you'll sometimes see a piece of land described as:

NW 1/4, NE 1/4, Section 12, T1N, R3W

This means this 40 acres of land is the northwest quarter of the Northeast quarter of the 12th square mile in the 36 square mile township that is 1 north and 3 west of the official surveyed lines that define the area.....

Here's a page that has some graphics to help explain it better:
http://www.geomore.com/Township%20Range%20Explanation.htm

[Smokin' Joe]

It is the Red State answer to the crop circle.

Ok, would you believe, they are for dances.....

How about we really like driving into the sun in the morning and evening?

Actually, they are laid out in the land survey system, if you google 'Township and Range Survey Grid', you will probably get a better answer.

[demkicker]

You must not fly much. I don't either but everytime I do, I see those same grids everywhere (not just the mid-west) and they are very distinct and noticable only from the sky.

[RightWhale]

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.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Are you tripping off LSD? LOL

[bert]

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.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

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...