Metes and Bounds

Metes and bounds is a way of describing land by tracing its boundary: from a starting point, along each course by direction and distance, and back to the start.

BLM's Glossary of Surveying and Mapping Terms defines it as "a method of describing a parcel of land by citing the owners of abutting lands and describing the length of each course of a boundary as 'along' some apparent line, such as, 'along a stream' or 'along the road.'" It adds: "In modern usage, a metes and bounds description includes the bearings and distances of each course."

Before and alongside the PLSS

BLM's Manual of Surveying Instructions (2009) notes that in the Colonial States, lands "were described by irregular metes-and-bounds, with each parcel depending more or less on the description of its neighbors" (section 1-18). Within the public land states, BLM's Specifications for Descriptions of Land (2017) say metes and bounds is used for parcels "that involve unusual applications of or departures from the rectangular system," including lode mining claims, forest homestead entries, ranchos, and reservations.

The parts of a description

The Specifications divide a metes-and-bounds description into three parts:

1. Caption, giving the general location, such as section, township, range, meridian, county, and state
2. Body, with the point of commencement, point of beginning, each course and distance, calls for monuments and adjoining lands, a closing call to the point of beginning, the area, and the basis of bearings
3. Clauses, which clarify, encumber, add to, or take away from the land described

Calls and their order

A call is "a reference to, or statement of, an object, course, distance or other matter of description in a survey or grant requiring or calling for a corresponding object, or other matter of description, on the land" (BLM glossary). The Specifications note that the controlling elements of a description "have importance and hierarchy in their use," which in law "is often called 'rules of construction.'"

Metes and bounds and mining claims

The Manual records that under the 1872 Mining Law, lode mining claims and tunnel sites were described by metes and bounds, while placer mining claims and millsites were described by the rectangular system (section 1-13(n)). A mineral survey of a lode mining claim is a metes-and-bounds survey tied to the PLSS. Its position "is fixed by connecting it by course and distance either to the nearest corner of the public land survey, or to a mineral monument," and the connecting line may not exceed 2 miles (section 10-133). The Manual suggests making the tied corner "corner No. 1" as a convenience "in the preparation of subsequent metes-and-bounds descriptions."

Why it matters in research

A lode mining claim does not follow section lines, so it can cross into several sections and overlap other mining claims or surveys. Its courses, distances, and tie to a PLSS corner are what place it on the map, and an error in any one of them moves the whole mining claim.