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The Seven Ranges Historical Marker

Location of sign - Located on OH highway 39 at the Pennsylvania line.

Photo taken -  September 2007

Photo courtesy of Jimmy Wayne

Text of sign:

The Seven Ranges 

In late 1785, Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, began the first federal land survey according to the terms of the 

recent Land Ordinance of 1785. Hutchins' party extended a base line (the Geographer's Line) from the Pennsylvania border due 

westward from the north bank of the Ohio River, laying out the northern boundary of seven ranges of townships. Each 

six-mile-square township was subdivided into one-mile-square sections with a north-south row called a range. A one-mile-square 

section (640 acres) was the smallest unit offered for sale at public auction. As few could afford to purchase a section at $1.00 per 

acre, land sold slowly. The presence of illegal settlers and tensions with Native Americans slowed the surveying process and only 

Ohio's Seven Ranges was completed under the first survey.

The Ohio Bicentennial Commission, The Ohio Historical Society 2003 4-41

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