II.  Township

Townships are made up of 36 sections. The square Section shown is one Township. Township lines run east and west on a topo map. Township numbers are written in the left and right margins of topo maps.

Example: T42S= Township 42 South

III. Range

Range lines run north and south on a topo map. You can find them in the top and bottom margins of the map.

Example: R9W=Range 9 West

Range lines measure east and west of a “Principal Meridian”. If you want to know more about the Principal Meridian, and Meridians in general, try an internet search.

Contour Lines

We’re going to make an assumption here that you already know how to find roads on maps. They are usually solid or broken lines (---) with numbers designating a highway or interstate. But there are lots more curvy, squiggly lines on a topo map and these are contour lines. To understand more read the Rules for Contour Lines on the next page then look at Figure 1 to see how contour lines are constructed.