Section Township Range Lookup

Every quarter section of farmland, mineral lease, and survey parcel on the Canadian prairies has a precise address in the Dominion Land Survey (DLS) system. That address is built from three numbers — section, township, and range — plus a meridian. Once you understand how those pieces fit together, you can pinpoint any location from Manitoba to British Columbia without a GPS coordinate in sight.

How the Numbering Works

Sections

Each township is a roughly six-by-six mile block of land divided into 36 sections. The sections are numbered in a serpentine (boustrophedon) pattern starting from the southeast corner of the township:

31  32  33  34  35  36
30  29  28  27  26  25
19  20  21  22  23  24
18  17  16  15  14  13
 7   8   9  10  11  12
 6   5   4   3   2   1

Section 1 is in the southeast corner. The count moves west along the bottom row to section 6, then jumps to section 7 directly above section 6 and moves east, and so on. This back-and-forth pattern means section 36 ends up in the northeast corner of every township.

Townships

Townships are numbered from 1 northward, starting at the international border between Alberta/Saskatchewan and the United States. Township 1 sits just north of the 49th parallel. Township 126 reaches the Peace River country in northern Alberta. The higher the township number, the farther north the location.

Ranges

Ranges are numbered westward from each principal meridian. The 4th Meridian (W4M) runs through eastern Alberta near the Saskatchewan border. The 5th Meridian (W5M) passes through central Alberta near Edmonton. Range 1 is immediately west of each meridian; range numbers increase as you move west.

Common Formats

The same section-township-range can appear several ways depending on the source document:

Township Canada accepts all of these formats. You can paste any of them directly into the search field and the parser will identify the components.

Step-by-Step Lookup

1. Enter the legal land description. Type or paste the section-township-range into the search bar. For example: 14-032-21W4.
2. Review the map with grid overlay. The map zooms to the township block and draws the survey grid on top of the satellite or road layer. The full township grid of 36 sections appears at this zoom level.
3. See the section highlighted. Section 14 within Township 32, Range 21, W4M is outlined and shaded on the map. The centre-point coordinates appear in the sidebar.
4. Export or navigate. Copy the GPS coordinates, download the boundary as a GeoJSON or KML file, or open the location in Google Maps. Business-tier accounts can export in additional formats including PDF maps.

Example: 14-032-21W4

14-032-21W4 resolves to approximately 51.36°N, 112.81°W, placing it in the Red Deer River badlands region near Drumheller, Alberta. This area sits in the central Alberta plains, Township 32 being about 32 townships north of the US border — roughly 220 kilometres north of the 49th parallel.

If you are verifying mineral rights, surface access agreements, or agricultural parcels in that region, this single legal description uniquely identifies one square mile of land.

Common Mistakes

Confusing the section numbering order. The serpentine pattern catches people off guard. Section 7 is not next to section 8 on the east — it is directly above section 6. If a location seems far from where you expect it, double-check which section number you are using.

Wrong meridian. Alberta straddles both the 4th and 5th meridians. A range number alone is ambiguous without specifying W4M or W5M. Range 21 W4M and Range 21 W5M are more than 200 kilometres apart.

Swapping township and range. In the short numeric format (14-032-21W4), the order is section–township–range. Reversing township and range will land you in a completely different part of the province.

Zero-padding. Some databases write Township 32 as 032 and others as 32. Both refer to the same township. Township Canada normalises either form automatically.

Related Resources

• DLS to GPS Converter — convert any legal land description to latitude and longitude
• LSD to Lat/Long — look up quarter sections and legal subdivisions
• Township, Range, and Meridian Explained — deeper background on how the DLS grid is structured
• Glossary — definitions for LSD, DLS, NTS, meridian, and other survey terms
• About Township Canada — how the platform works and who it is built for

Enter any section-township-range into Township Canada to see it on the map, get GPS coordinates, and export the boundary — no survey knowledge required.