Homestead Certificate
Homestead Certificate

General Land Facts:

  • Square measure: 1 acre = .4047 hectare | 1 acre = 43560 square feet

  • Linear Measure: 5280 feet = 1 mile | 1760 yards = 1 mile

Click here to view a PDF example of a Section-Township-Range map, courtesy of Brian Austin, State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Homestead Certificate Cropped
...containing one hundred and fifty acres and seventy three hundreth of an acre...

Scenario: Examine the homestead certificate of Herman D. Hoeft. Your family owns the homestead of Herman D. Hoeft. The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) is going to build a new highway along the east side of your property. At the public hearing you are informed that the NDDOT requires 200 feet for the road, shoulder, ditch, and back slope. The center line of the road will run along the surveyed east edge of your property.

  1. How many acres will be taken by the NDDOT for the road?

  2. You have decided to break the remaining acres into 3.5 acre lots for houses. How many lots can you create?

  3. Your friend Uwe Miller in Frankfurt, Germany wishes to purchase the entire Hoeft homestead, since he is a distant relative of Herman D. Hoeft. He needs to let his banker know how many hectares he is purchasing.