You can download PLSS data three ways:

• State - this is a prepackage zip file containing all of the PLSS data for all of the townships in the state.
• County- select state/county for a prepackage zip file containing all of the PLSS data for all of the townships in the county.
• Individual Township using the township select tool.

For more information on the selection see Select Townships. When a selection has been made the user can download the selected townships to their local computer. LSIS provides data in two formats--ESRI GIS shapefile or GCDB flat file. The GCDB flat file formats are not GIS ready and must be reformatted to work with GIS. We do not recommend using the flat files unless you know how to convert the files. The flat files are only available by request. Use the Contact Us to request the flat files.


To Download PLSS Shapefiles:

Step 1: Select the desired data provider BLM GCDB Source Data or USDA Forest Service and Alternate Source Data (see Figure 1 below) by clicking on the corresponding radio button. Click "Download PLSS Shapeiles". BLM should be your selection unless there are no BLM files for the township. Townships cannot be added or deleted from an existing selection set as the files are prepackage zip files. The Data Availability Status ( BLM or USFS and other sources) for each township is shown in the right hand columns. For BLM data there is a last updated date for the township. To download files from more than one provider from the same you will have to do a download for each format, one for BLM and one for USFS.

Step 2: A disclaimer window (see Figure 2 below) displaying the size of the file and disclaimer is presented. Read the disclaimer and select "Download Now" to download the data or select "Close" if you want to cancel the download.

Step 3: Save file to your computer.

Figure 1: Download window for shapefile and survey data download

Figure 2: Download window for shapefile and survey data download

To Download BLM GCDB Survey Points and Lines and Control Points:

Step 1: In Figure 3 below under Survey Data Exports, you can download the survey coordinate data for up to 10 townships at a time. Under the Points column select the desired townships to download the survey data. Note: you can only download the survey data for BLM- GCDB townships as we don't have the survey data for the non-BLM data. After you have selected the townships click "Export Survey Data".

Figure 3: Survey Data Export

Step 2: Select the Content Desired- All points , All points and lines or Control Points as shown in Figure 4 below.

Step 3: Select Format Desired - KML, GPX (for GPS units), List (.txt), GeoRSS (.xml). Note: Points and Lines are only available in KML and GeoRSS (XML) formats.

Step 4: Select "Export to File"

Step 5: When the link to the file is returned select the "Click to Download" link.

Figure 4: Content and Format Selection and Export to File