Misty_B,
Did you read my other comment? It was much longer. I did not even try as hard as you did, and now a portion of my family was possibly swindled.
I am a Realtor in California. Do you know how large your “Block” is? Many counties have public websites with cross reference of APN # (Assessor’s Parcel Number) the way the tax collector can identify individual parcels for taxation purposes - the owner of record then will receive an annual property tax assessment by snail mail.
So, you may only be the heir of the mineral rights below that “block” but if you can find a GIS map (Geographic Information System) on-line, you might at least be able to determine the size of the “block”. In California, The County has what are called Map Books and each lot and block are drawn as recorded. Some areas have smaller parcels within a block, while others are much larger. In the City, a common parcel could be 25 feet by 100’ or 2,500 square feet. With zero lot lines (like in San Francisco) they are allowed to build buildings that butt up next to one another, and therefore no side yards, only front and back yards. However, in the suburbs, a common lot size could be 50 X100, and that is a lot that could accommodate a 2,000 sq.ft house with a yard surrounding it, albeit maybe only 5 foot Setback from the side property line.
BUT, if you go further out to the unincorporated areas of the county, a single parcel could be forty acres of farmland. In the city, there could be 40 2,500 SF parcels to one Block, and 30 or more blocks per map book. My point being that a standard tract that has been subdivided by some developer to build houses on, one parcel # could encompass more Square feet of land than another.
Some Counties here in CA, have GIS mapping on their website that would show the outlines of parcels overlaid on top of a satellite image of the area. (A good example would be on Zillow.com, where you could look at a birds-eye satellite view of a neighborhood showing the lot lines overlaid on the neighborhood, to see how big their yards (lots) are. Or you can see features on other areas such as seismic zones, Forested lands, water features (oceans rivers, lakes) Or even district boundaries for Municipal Services such as Sanitary Districts, or County Park lands.
Anyway, my point is, a “block” is a variable size and just a term on an Assessor’s parcel map. If you google ”How many square feet are in an acre” you will discover the same answer “43,560”, because an acre is an established measurement. However if you google “How many square feet are in a city block” you will come up with a calculator which has variables like East Coast US, Southwest, Midwest : Convert square foot to square city block % - Conversion of Measurement Units
…Because there is no standard answer.
Additionally, some western lands were measured as Townships. Townships are a measured grid of Sections of approximately 1 square mile (1 mile x 1 mile) or 1 mile = 5,380 feet per side. Townships are approximately 6 miles on each side. Normal Townships have 36 Sections (1 acre x 1 acre). Each Section contains 640 acres. These could be further sized into smaller designations 40 acres each 4 x 40 = 160 acres, or 10 acres (16 x10 acres =160 acres) or one larger 1 X 160 acres. (1/4 of a section). And, likewise even combinations of 2.5 acres, 5 acres, 80 acres,10 acres, 7&1/2 acres, 1&1/2 acres or 5/8th of an acre all could be combined to fit within the 160 acre =1/4 Section formula.
My suggestion is to locate the Township, determine the County and then see if that Vounty has some