Please contact the Museum Division staff for information concerning museum artifacts. Although there were areas of European-American settlement prior to the advent of the railroad, most occurred after the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed the Red River in 1871. While the Homestead Act made it possible for settlers to obtain free land, approximately one-fourth of the state was granted to the railroad for building through the territory. Other land was eventually granted to the state for public purposes. Therefore, settlers might have obtained land through homesteading or purchase.
Townships run from base lines and principal meridians .
Each township has a range number which identifies the number of rows either east or west of the principal meridian and a township number which identifies the number of rows north or south of the baseline. Every description of land should show the section, township and range in which it is located. A township is divided into thirty-six sections, each a mile square. The sections are numbered beginning from the northeastern corner, and moving west, then east along the second row, then west again along the third row, and so forth until finally ending at number thirty-six in the southeast corner. Sections 16 and 36 were usually set aside as school lands.