A township in some states of the United States is a small geographic area. The term is used in three ways. 1. * A is simply a geographic reference used to define property location for deeds and grants as surveyed and platted by the General Land Office (GLO). A survey township is nominally six by six miles square, or 23,040 acres. 2. * A 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 , found only in the state of Michigan, is similar to a civil township. Provided certain conditions are met, a charter township is mostly exe