I have heard from John Shankland of the Principal Meridian Project, who confirms
that the initial points of the Washington Meridian and the St. Helena Meridian
are identical (one unique point on LAMS).

He has sent me PDF's of two pages from White's book, in which the Washington
Meridian is discussed. These pages focus on unsuccessful 20th-century efforts
to recover the meridian's initial point on LAMS, which, sadly, remained unmarked
as of 1988.

The task was assigned in 1945 to "cadastral engineers" Walsh and Crawford, who,
White writes, "searched for but could find no evidence of the Initial Point nor
of Mile Post No. 24 on Ellicott's Line of Demarcation... Walsh and Crawford
mistakenly assumed that the Washington Meridian Initial Point was the 24
milepost of the Ellicott Line of Demarcation."

I have asked John to send me the beginning of the discussion of the Washington
Meridian, where White presumably tells how the location of the meridian was
chosen and how much it differs from Ellicott. It can't be much! It was
supposedly close enough to have fooled Walsh and Crawford." If we know how much
and in which direction, the public land survey on the Mississippi side would
still provide excellent clues to the locations of any surviving Ellicott mounds.

Unfortunately, the mismatch, however slight it is, rules out the conjunction of
any modern tripoints with Ellicott's mile mounds along LAMS. Therefore, we must
enjoy any that we find for their historicity only. Since the St. Stephens
Meridian is most definitely surveyed from Ellicott's Stone, hope might remain
farther east.

Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA