Township, Range, and Meridian Explained

The prairies of western Canada are divided by one of the most precise land grids ever laid over a continent. Every quarter section of farmland, every oil lease, every rural property description traces back to three numbers and a direction: township, range, and meridian. Once you understand how those three pieces fit together, reading a legal land description becomes straightforward.

The Three-Part Address System

A DLS address like 32-21-W4 tells you exactly where on the grid a piece of land sits. Read it as: Township 32, Range 21, West of the 4th Meridian. Each part answers a different question.

For a full history of why this system was built and how it evolved, see the Dominion Land Survey system guide.

Meridians: The Vertical Reference Lines

Meridians are the starting points — north-south lines from which ranges are measured. The Dominion Land Survey used six principal meridians across western Canada:

• W1 (First Meridian) — 97°27′W, just west of Winnipeg, Manitoba
• W2 (Second Meridian) — 102°W, central Saskatchewan
• W3 (Third Meridian) — 106°W, western Saskatchewan
• W4 (Fourth Meridian) — 110°W, the Alberta-Saskatchewan border
• W5 (Fifth Meridian) — 114°W, near Calgary
• W6 (Sixth Meridian) — 118°W, in the BC foothills

Most Alberta land descriptions reference W4 or W5. Saskatchewan uses W2, W3, and W4. Manitoba primarily uses W1.

Townships: The Horizontal Rows

A township is a 6-mile × 6-mile block of land. Townships are numbered starting at 1, counting north from the 49th parallel — the Canada-US border.

• Township 1 sits right at the border
• Township 32 is roughly in the Edmonton region
• Township 72 reaches into the Peace Country
• Township 126+ extends into northern Alberta

The higher the township number, the farther north you are. This makes it easy to get a rough geographic sense from the number alone: Township 10 is southern prairie, Township 50 is central Alberta, Township 90+ is heading toward the boreal.

Ranges: The Vertical Columns

Ranges are columns of land, numbered west from each meridian. Range 1 West of a given meridian is the first column immediately west of that line. Range 2 is the next column west, and so on.

This means ranges reset at each meridian. Range 28 W4 and Range 28 W5 are completely different locations — both are 28 columns west of their respective meridians, but separated by more than 400 kilometres.

How They Combine

Think of it as a giant spreadsheet overlaid on the prairies. Townships are the row numbers (north-south position). Ranges are the column numbers (east-west position). Meridians are the column headers that tell you which section of the spreadsheet you're in.

To find 32-21-W4:

1. Start at the 4th Meridian (the Alberta-Saskatchewan border)
2. Count 21 range columns west
3. Count 32 township rows north from the border

That intersection is a 36-square-mile block of land. Each township contains 36 sections, and each section contains four quarter sections (NE, NW, SE, SW). The full legal land description adds section and quarter: NW-14-32-21-W4 pinpoints a specific 160-acre quarter.

You can look up any section-township-range combination at /how-to/section-township-range-lookup, or convert coordinates to GPS using the DLS to GPS converter.

Why the Grid Still Matters

Survey crews walked this grid across the prairies starting in the 1870s. The coordinates they established still govern land titles, crown lease boundaries, pipeline right-of-ways, and municipal addresses across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Rural addresses like "SW-22-45-3-W5" are still the legal standard.

If you work with agricultural land, oil and gas, or rural property anywhere in western Canada, knowing how to read township-range-meridian notation is a practical skill. The Township Canada glossary covers related terms, and the Alberta legal land converter handles province-specific address formats.

See the grid yourself — search any township-range on Township Canada and place it on the map.