 The Public Land Survey System of the United States was established by Congressional legislation in 1785, in order to provide an orderly mechanism for opening the Northwest Territory for settlement.The ordinance directed the Geographer of the United States, Thomas Hutchins to survey an initial east-west base line.This Hutchins began in 1786, using as his starting point a stake placed on north bank of the Ohio River by a 1785 survey team from the states of Virginia and Pennsylvania to fix their common north-south boundary (now the boundary between Pennsylvania and the northern tip of West Virginia).