Legacy land units
Converts chains and links, rods, furlongs, varas, and arpents from old deeds and plats to US survey feet, feet, and meters, with the definition used; varas and arpents need a jurisdiction.
Experimental: not yet fully verified. How results are checked
That is 814.44 US survey ft, or 248.242 m.
- The US survey foot was deprecated by NIST and NOAA on January 1, 2023. Use it only for legacy data.
- International feet
- Meters
- Basis
Provenance
- Computed by
- survey.land.legacy-units 1.0.0, core 0.1.0
- Model
- Gunter's chain of 66 US survey feet (100 links), rod of 16.5 ft, furlong of 660 ft; jurisdictional varas and arpents
- Accuracy
- Exact for the stated definitions. Old records sometimes used local variants; check the survey's own statement of units.
- Notes
- 2 shown with the answer
- Cites
- Bureau of Land Management, Manual of Surveying Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States; Texas General Land Office definitions as compiled by surveying references (Texas vara of 33⅓ inches by the 1919 statute; Florida and California vara of 33.372 inches; Louisiana arpent of 191.994 feet; Missouri arpent of 0.8507 acre), Units of Measure: land measurements and definitions (vara, arpent)
Something look off?
How we got thisFormula, worked example, sources, and proof
Model: Gunter's chain of 66 US survey feet (100 links), rod of 16.5 ft, furlong of 660 ft; jurisdictional varas and arpents
Accuracy: Exact for the stated definitions. Old records sometimes used local variants; check the survey's own statement of units.
Worked example: 12 chains 34 links. Source: add-practitioner-essentials legacy-units scenario: 814.44 US survey feet (1 chain = 66 ftUS; 1 link = 0.66 ftUS). It is golden test vector v001, and every build checks the tool still gives its answer within its tolerance.
You enter
- Length
- 12 chains 34 links
You get
- US survey feet
- 814.44 US survey ft
- International feet
- 814.44 ft
- Meters
- 248.242 m
- Basis
- 1 chain = 66 US survey feet (Gunter's chain); 1 link = 0.66 US survey feet (1/100 chain)
Review: Not yet independently reviewed by a licensed surveyor.
Last verified: 2026-09-18, when a maintainer last confirmed this tool's sources at the issuer. See the sources ledger.
Status: version 1.0.0, core 0.1.0. See this tool in the verification report.
Checked against: 7 golden test vectors (download the test vectors, each with its source and tolerance). See how results are checked and every source.
Sources
- Manual of Surveying Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States, Bureau of Land Management, 2009 Manual. Chapter 1 (units: chain of 66 feet, link of 0.66 feet) and Chapter 3 (subdivision of sections, aliquot parts).
- Units of Measure: land measurements and definitions (vara, arpent), Texas General Land Office definitions as compiled by surveying references (Texas vara of 33⅓ inches by the 1919 statute; Florida and California vara of 33.372 inches; Louisiana arpent of 191.994 feet; Missouri arpent of 0.8507 acre), Compiled definitions, checked 2026-09-18. Vara and arpent entries.
Experimental means this tool has not yet met the stable bar: at least 20 golden vectors, differential tests, and an independent worked example.