Section 16 near Pedee
A school section with two pioneer claims inside it.
Section 16, Township 9 South, Range 6 West, Willamette Meridian, Polk County, Oregon · See the Surveyor’s Walk card
“Section 16 was set aside for schools. Why do two pioneer claims sit in the middle of it, and did the State get other land instead?”
Written by AI
Congress set aside Sections 16 and 36 of every Oregon township for schools. Section 16 of Township 9 South, Range 6 West, the township that holds Pedee, is not whole on the survey grid: two Donation Land Claims, No. 45 and No. 46, sit in the middle of it. This is a deliberately thin file. It shows what the survey grid and the law say, and lists plainly what the record here can’t tell you yet.
What the record shows
In BLM’s survey-grid data, Section 16 is not a whole square. Its land is a single band along the north, west and south sides, wrapped around two claims that take the middle of the section: Donation Land Claim No. 45 on the west and Donation Land Claim No. 46 on the east, which runs on into Section 15.
Source: BLM National PLSS survey-grid data (CadNSDI), section layer: Section 16, T9S R6W (queried October 5, 2026; the drawing above is made from these coordinates)
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BLM’s survey-grid data gives Donation Land Claim No. 46 a record area of 321.0 acres and Donation Land Claim No. 45 a record area of 159.36 acres. Not all of Claim No. 46 lies in Section 16: its east end runs into Section 15.
Source: BLM National PLSS survey-grid data (CadNSDI), claim layer: DC 45 and DC 46, T9S R6W (record areas as carried in BLM’s data: DC 46 “321.0 Acres”, DC 45 “159.36 Acres”; queried October 5, 2026; claim numbers repeat from township to township, so these are Claims No. 45 and No. 46 of this township)
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The center point of Section 16 falls inside Claim No. 46. Ask BLM’s section layer about that point and it finds no section; its claim layer answers Donation Land Claim No. 46.
Source: BLM National PLSS survey-grid data (CadNSDI): point queries at the center of Section 16, T9S R6W (point at 123.427843° W, 44.788128° N; section layer empty, intersected layer DC 46; queried October 5, 2026)
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The 1848 act that created Oregon Territory reserved the sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township, once surveyed, “for the purpose of being applied to schools.”
“Sec. 20. And be it further enacted, That when the lands in the said Territory shall be surveyed under the direction of the government of the United States, preparatory to bringing the same into market, sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be, and the same is hereby, reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in said Territory, and in the States and Territories hereafter to be erected out of the same.”
Source: Act of Aug. 14, 1848, ch. 177, § 20, 9 Stat. 323, 330
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Oregon’s admission act of 1859 offered the new State the sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in every township of public lands, to be “granted to said State for the use of schools”; Oregon accepted that June.
“First, That sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in every township of public lands in said State, and where either of said sections, or any part thereof, has been sold or otherwise been disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to said State for the use of schools.”
Source: Act of Feb. 14, 1859, ch. 33, § 4 (“First”), 11 Stat. 383
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The same proposition covers a school section that was already taken: where any part had been “sold or otherwise been disposed of,” the State was to get “other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be.” In plain words: the same amount of land, as close by as possible.
“other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be”
Source: Act of Feb. 14, 1859, ch. 33, § 4 (“First”), 11 Stat. 383
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What the record can’t say
Written by AI
- Gap in the record Who the claimants of Donation Land Claims No. 45 and No. 46 were. The survey-grid data gives numbers and areas, not names.
- Gap in the record When the claims were settled. That matters: under the 1850 donation law, a claim on Section 16 or 36 stood only if the settler’s living and farming there began before the survey.
- Gap in the record Whether the State chose other land in place of the claimed parts, which land, and when. Oregon’s lists of lands chosen in lieu of sections 16 and 36 are at the State Archives; this file hasn’t looked yet.
- Gap in the record What became of the rest of Section 16 outside the claims, and who has owned it since.
What to look up next
Written by AI
Now try your own place Bring boots; the corner posts won’t come to you.