Township (United States)

A township in some states of the United States is a small geographic area.^[1]

The term is used in three ways.

1. A survey township is simply a geographic reference used to define property location for deeds and grants as surveyed and platted by the United States General Land Office (GLO). A survey township is nominally six by six miles square, or 23,040 acres.
2. A civil township is a unit of local government, generally a civil division of a county. Counties are the primary divisional entities in many states, thus the powers and organization of townships varies from state to state. Civil townships are generally given a name, sometimes written with the included abbreviation "Twp".
3. A charter township, found only in the state of Michigan, is similar to a civil township. Provided certain conditions are met, a charter township is mostly exempt from annexation to contiguous cities or villages, and carries additional rights and responsibilities of home rule.