Townships have arrived!

One of the most commonly requested features I’ve heard over the past several months is the ability to map townships.

Well, now you can on both the County Lines on Google Maps and the City Limits on Google Maps tools by checking the “Also show townships” box in the lower left corner of both map tools:

If you’re using the City Limits on Google Maps tool and you search for a place or address that is in a township, that township will be highlighted on the map for you even if you don’t have the “Also show townships” checkbox checked.  This is based on the assumption that if you’re using the City Limits tool, you probably want to know if a place or address is part of a city-like entity, which townships often are.  So, searching for Manalapan township, NJ will produce a map like this:

Checking the “Also show townships” checkbox adds all of the rest of the townships to the map.

To see townships on the County Lines on Google Maps tool, just check “Also show US townships”.  If you then click on the map or search a place or address that happens to also be part of a township, you will see that information listed at the bottom of the map:

So, just remember, if you want to see the City or Townships highlighted on the map, use the City Limits on Google Maps tool.

Enjoy!  Feel free to share this tool and leave any comments below.

For those who want to dive a tad deeper…

By way of background, townships are primary governmental or administrative divisions of a county (separate from a city or town) found in much of the northeastern and midwestern U.S. states.  Here’s a map showing where townships are present:

These are the townships that can be viewed on the County Lines on Google Maps tool and the City Limits on Google Maps tools.

The above townships are not to be confused with the Townships that are part of the Township, Range, Section designation used by the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) in 30 states in the west, central and southern U.S.  This latter PLSS type of Township/Range/Section can be viewed on the Township Range on Google Maps tool on this website.