Michael,
For an
interesting sidenote to your discussion on almstn, go southeast, upriver, from
the tripoint.
Note
the map labelling error where Tishamingo County, MS meets Colbert County,
AL. There is
a
section of the 1:100000 map where both Tishamingo and Colbert are applied to
the same area.
The
1:25000 map does not have this error.
Jack
good of you to
dish these data & map brendan
they really are worth
savoring
this is pickwick tva dam lake 1937
it looks like the
usgs rightly feels responsible for preserving the memory
of these boundary
making river banks
but couldnt quite finish the job at the mouth of yellow
creek
where we are left to deduce how your six 4pole chains aka 396 feet
fit in
upriver of the invisible creek confluence & visible mstn
line
but i have checked it out & you are right
also my own
further digging has just revealed a very simple & very dumb
solution to
the whole problem
bus&ss says the code of alabama says
altn runs
westward along the southern boundary of tn
crossing the tennessee
river
& then peculiarly but
verbatim
& on to second intersection
of said river by said line
the original
intention of & reason for this reference to the second
intersection was
obviously owing to the fact that the tennessee river
crosses the 35th
parallel twice
first near algatn & again at almstn
but
the wording can also be perversely read in this case to refer only to
the
second or lower of these two crossings
where the second intersection of the
river by the line could then only mean
the left or western bank
since
the first intersection of the river by the line there could only
have
occurred at its right or eastern bank
of course i
know every place a shape is intersected by a line there
are
really two line intersections both occurring along the outline of
the shape
but i doubt this geometric construction was ever intended by
anyone
& so i would guess that it was only the happenchance of such
a perverse
reading that has more than anything else encouraged the altn
boundary to
continue westward across the river & then for lack of
any better clue to
scamper up the left bank to almstn without
disturbance or serious objection
from anyone but me
in any
case
attached below is a pic of our trusty local informant & pilot
horace yearber
turning about on the tristate point
with the camera
pointing northwest to the rather impressive lake house of
loretta
lynn
closest resident to almstn
which stands very near the
first yellow creek left bank benchmark on the topo
but for my
money
almstn is not so much a point as a gap or hole in
reality
m
ps to david
bear creek & the fragment are
farther up the tennessee river
just where the alms survey line comes up
from the south
>
>Interesting. Both the TnMs and TnAl
lines were menat to be at the 35th
>parallel. But the Ms leg was defined
"from a point on the west bank of the
>Tennessee River four six-pole
chains south, or above Yellow Creek... and
>then ran west. This line was
slightly south of the 35th. IN Al, the estimate
>of where the 35th was
was made near Elk River, in the middle of the AlTn
>line. It was then
run east and west of thatp oint, but has a slight angling
>to the NW and
SE, such that it is south of the 35th at the Ga border, and
>north of
the 35th at the Ms border.
>So instead of the two lines of southern Tn
meeting at the 35th, the Ms part
>is a little south and the Al part al
ittle norht, fo a total error of about
>a mil,e north south. Given that
the west bank of the Tn form the AlMs line
>to the south, continuing the
line along the bank north seems reasonable,
>rather than drawing a
straight line. A line diagonally across the river fomr
>one bank to the
other would also seem logical, if out of keeping with NS and
>EW
american lines, though looking again at themap, it would have been
more
>NS than the current line following the river slightly W of
N.
>
>So who defined this 1 mile extra leg, and when? Is it
statuted?
>
>That theriver here has been dammed (when?) means the
line is no longer on a
>bank, and created a little fragment of Al on the
Ms side of the line south
>from Bear Ck, which was once no doubt all
land, and not lake.
>
>Interesitng that the USGS maps show the
original river banks down the
>middleof the lake.
>
>http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=16&n=3870203&e=389129&size=l&symshow=n
>
>BW
>