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Odd things you can find involving surveying on Facebook
I particularly enjoy the comment below about this being in a swampy area. A penisula and a swamp are examples of a fairly common pairing. Thus the Michigan state motto, ??Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice,? which means ??If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you,?
Michigan officially became a state on January 26, 1837. Located in the woods near Jackson, are two markers where Michigan got its start about two centuries ago. They mark the states Meridian, (north and south line) and the Baseline, (east and west line). All of the townships and counties in Michigan??s two peninsulas are surveyed from these two points. The markers are located in Meridian Baseline State Park about 15 miles north of Jackson.The state has two points because there were two surveyors. On April 28, 1815, Benjamin Hough began surveying the Michigan territory. He started heading north from Fort Defiance in Ohio and about 70 miles north he set the first initial point in Michigan and began surveying sections 1 and 2. A second surveyor by the name of Fletcher surveyed sections 3 and 4 but his work was grossly inaccurate. To correct Fletcher??s mistakes a second initial point was established. One point is used for the east side of the state and the other is used for the west side of the state. Michigan is the only state to use two initial points for its public land surveying.For years the twin initial points sat in a landlocked section of woods surrounded by private land. No one was allowed to visit them. In 2014 the state was able to create a parking lot and a trail to the two markers. It is about a mile and a half hike round trip to see the markers. If you do visit I recommend bug spray since they are in a rather swampy area.If you love exploring Michigan I hope you will take a look at Lost In Michigan books available on Amazon HERE https://amzn.to/3ZoZVJ3 -
15 Replies
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Twenty-four years and three days later, Kansas became a State. Number 34 of the 50.
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How many on this site pre-date 50 states?
I’ll start as one.
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Are these people “pre-wooden-teeth”, or are you talking about something else?
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That was 1959. Alaska in January, Hawaii in August. So a lot of us qualify. I even remember it happening.
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Yes. We started school with me in First Grade by all gathering around the flag pole as the 48-State flag came down for the last time and the 50-State flag went up for the first time.
Anyone know #46, #47 & #48 in the correct order? One would need to be over 110 years old to pre-date the 48-State flag.
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Without looking at the list above, what is the only State east of the Mississippi River to be added since 1860?
Some of my ancesotrs were there when it happened.
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It’s fascinating to see how late OK was to the game with all the western states that came way before it.
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Without looking at the list above, what is the only State east of the Mississippi River to be added since 1860?
Some of my ancesotrs were there when it happened.
West Virginia
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It’s fascinating to see how late OK was to the game with all the western states that came way before it.
Considering that it was labelled “Indian Territory” on most pre-1907 maps, and the prevailing attitudes of the day, it is kind of amazing that it happened as soon as it did.
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That is correct. The eastern edge of what became West Virginia was only a few miles to the east of where some of my ancestors arrived about 1740. It was the first State added after Kansas joined.
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Growing up in British Columbia I learned how B.C. became a province of Canada long before (1871) the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba did because of concerns that failing to would expose it to US expansionism.
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@bob-freeman : Two
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I am. ????
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