Editing Public Land Survey System (section)

==Non-PLSS regions==
[[File:Map of Louisiana Representing the Several Land Districts, from the Surveyor General's Report 1860 NAID 26465546.jpg|thumb|1860 survey of Louisiana showing "Davenport Claims" and "Rejected Claim of the Baron de Bastrop", among others]]
[[File:Post office application Los Angeles 1866 02.jpg|thumb|This post office application from 1866 shows the four square [[League (unit)#Spain|Spanish league]]s of the pre-statehood [[Los Angeles Pueblo]] within the township-range system.]]

The system is in use in some capacity in most of the country, but large portions use other systems. The territory under the jurisdiction of the Thirteen Colonies at the time of independence did not adopt the PLSS, with the exception of the area that became the Northwest Territory and some of the [[Southern United States|southern states]]. This territory comprises [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Connecticut]], [[Delaware]], [[Kentucky]], [[Maine]], [[Maryland]], [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[New Jersey]], [[New York (state)|New York]], [[North Carolina]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[Rhode Island]], [[South Carolina]], [[Tennessee]], [[Vermont]], [[Virginia]], and [[West Virginia]]. The old [[Cherokee County, Georgia|Cherokee lands]] in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] use the term ''section'' as a land designation, but it does not define the same area as the ''section'' used by the PLSS. Maine uses a variant of the system in unsettled parts of the state. Parts of Texas, western New York, northwest Pennsylvania, western Georgia, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, and northern Maine use state-developed survey systems similar to PLSS.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q96QL8UHUogC&dq=%22rectangular+survey+system%22+%22western+georgia%22&pg=PA46 |title=Whyte, William, 1987. "Our American Land: 1987 Yearbook of Agriculture," 46-47 |year=1987 |access-date=2022-02-23 |archive-date=2022-02-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223202428/https://books.google.com/books?id=q96QL8UHUogC&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=%22rectangular+survey+system%22+%22western+georgia%22&source=bl&ots=nM7S4beAAv&sig=ACfU3U18hmCW4m10j5H-7PQTFTFda-rhzw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_itDIyJb2AhVdCjQIHWZTCcMQ6AF6BAgSEAM#v=onepage&q=%22rectangular%20survey%20system%22%20%22western%20georgia%22&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Other major exceptions to PLSS are:
* [[California]], before statehood in 1850, was only crudely surveyed with the boundaries of Spanish and Mexican land grants (''[[Ranchos of California|ranchos]]''); since statehood the PLSS was used to convey government lands.
*Georgia surveyed its remaining central and western lands into a grid of land lots. Most were surveyed from 1819 through 1821 immediately upon the cession of all former Spanish lands to the U.S.
* [[Hawaii]] adopted a system based on the [[Hawaiian Kingdom|Kingdom of Hawaii]] native system in place at the time of annexation.
* [[Louisiana]] recognizes early French and Spanish descriptions called ''[[arpent]]s'', particularly in the southern part of the state, as well as PLSS descriptions.
* [[Alabama]] recognizes Spanish-era land claims, especially near the coast.
* [[New Mexico]] uses the PLSS but has several areas that retain original metes and bounds from Spanish and Mexican rule. These take the form of land grants similar to areas of Texas and California. As an extension, there are some New Mexico based Mexican land grants in south central [[Colorado]].
*Ohio's [[Virginia Military District]] was surveyed using the metes and bounds system. Areas in northern Ohio (the [[Connecticut Western Reserve]] and [[United States Military District]]) were surveyed with another standard, sometimes referred to as Congressional Survey townships, which are five miles (8&nbsp;km) on each side instead of the six miles standard implemented by the PLSS.
* [[Texas]] has a hybrid of its own early system, based on land grants made in [[Spanish Texas]], and a variation of the PLSS.
* [[Wisconsin]] had French settlement prior to the PLSS in the areas of [[Green Bay, Wisconsin|Green Bay]] and [[Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin|Prairie du Chien]]. Both areas were initially divided using the French [[long lots|''Long Lot'']] system along the water frontage. The most noticeable artifact of this system is visible on maps and satellite images in that the general street grids of Green Bay, [[Allouez, Wisconsin|Allouez]], [[Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin|Ashwaubenon]] and [[De Pere, Wisconsin|De Pere]] are all aligned to the Fox River, being rotated about 25° from north, in contrast to the standard east-west grid of the surrounding townships in Brown County.
* [[Michigan]] had French settlement prior to the PLSS along the [[Detroit River|Detroit]] and [[St. Clair River|St. Clair]] rivers, and near [[Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan|Sault Ste. Marie]], [[Marquette, Michigan|Marquette]], and [[Ypsilanti, Michigan|Ypsilanti]]. These are all examples of the French ''long lots''.
* Parts of [[Washington (state)|Washington]], [[Oregon]], [[Idaho]] and [[Wyoming]] were settled as [[Donation Land Claim Act|Donation Land Claims]]. Some were established before the Willamette Meridian, and those established after were often poorly surveyed and did not correspond to the PLSS.