Takeaways:
1. What was the point of having those large monuments in Somerset without any punch holes?!!?!?
2. Nice work by York County in fencing off their monuments.
I was quite surprised too, but keep in mind that mid-to-late 19th century surveyors most likely were using a staff compass and sighting the other stone that's 500 feet away sans telescope. One other intriguing aspect of Somerset's meridian markers that's yet to be investigated, will require driving back to the Somerset County and doing deeper research in person at the Registry of Deeds in Skowhegan. Currently online, you can only search back (grantee-grantor) to 1956.
Because the Somerset meridian stones are presently located on private property and the current deed (and those deeds in the chain that are able to be seen online) don't include any language mentioning the stones, or access to them, it is thought that they may possibly have been erected prior to the enactment of the law in 1869 requiring that the markers be erected on county-owned land. Additional research will be required.
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