gore

A gore is a narrow, often unusable strip of land created when adjacent property surveys fail to connect or overlap. It commonly arises where two towns or counties conducted independent surveys without perfect coordination, leaving a thin wedge of territory in between. The parcel is typically too small or awkwardly shaped to develop, and ownership can be unclear or disputed because it falls into the gap between two recorded claim lines.

Gores most frequently occur in areas surveyed under different systems or at different times. Early American township surveys, particularly in New England and the upper Midwest, generated numerous gores where state or county boundaries did not align perfectly with local property lines. A gore might be ten feet wide and several hundred feet long, or even smaller. Some gores are merely slivers a few feet across, running between two otherwise adjoining lots.

The term predates modern surveying. In sewing and tailoring, a gore is a triangular or tapering piece of fabric inserted into a garment to provide shape or fit. The surveying usage transferred this sense: a small, tapered piece of land inserted (or left over) in the gaps of a larger pattern. The word appears in nineteenth century land deeds and survey records, particularly in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Michigan.

Modern surveyors encounter gores when retracing old lines or resolving boundary disputes. Some gores have been formally incorporated or redistributed through quiet title actions or legislative remedy. Others remain on record as unclaimed or municipally owned remnants. A surveyor discovering a gore must research prior deeds, original survey notes, and local history to determine whether the land has ever been claimed or whether ownership truly remains ambiguous.

Gores are not unique to the United States. Similar gaps appear in Canadian, Australian, and other jurisdictions that relied on township-based or overlapping colonial surveys. The persistence of gores in property records serves as a practical reminder of the difficulty of reconciling historical surveys conducted without electronic tools or real-time coordination across jurisdictions.