hahahaha
well there is still wahpeton & sisseton to check
& it is only friday morning
trifinii vis tecum
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "bjbutlerus"
<bjbutler@b...> wrote:
> Yesterday I received from the Traverse County (MN) Recorder's
Office
> two sets of land plats showing the townships NE (Taylor) and
SE
> (Monson) of the MNNDSD trifinium, one set from 1902 and the
other from
> 1976. Using these, and the USGS topo map (Boisberg, MN
1972), I made
> some careful measurements from the east side of Land
Section 35 (NE of
> the trifinium) to the center of the river as depicted on each of
the
> maps, with the following results:
>
> 1902 Land Map - 2112 meters
> 1976 Land Map - 1999 meters
> USGS Topo Map - 2004 meters
>
> I also measured on the USGS map the distance between the
section 35
> line and the trifinium with a result of 2148 meters.
>
> The discrepancy between the 1976 Land Map and the USGS
Topo Map is
> only 5 meters and probably within the margin of error of my
> measurements because the scale of the land maps is
1:56320 and I am
> working from faxed copies.
>
> However, the discrepancy between the 1902 map and the
1976 map is 108
> meters, or about 360 feet, placing the 1902 river position 108
meters
> west of its current position and 36 meters east of the
USGS-depicted
> trifinium.
>
> I was able to speak with the [former] landowner of the section
NE of
> the trifinium. He did not know where the state boundary
actually was,
> but commented that "there is a lot of speculation and they say
there
> is a stone monument on the other side of the river." I believe
he is
> referring to the witness monument. He also mentioned that he
"was
> there the day they dug a pipeline trench on the east side of the
river
> and the backhoe operator told me they hit the old riverbed east
of the
> current river position, but who knows how many thousands of
years ago
> it was over there."
>
> Based on this research I am inclined to believe there is a
basis for
> the USGS depiction of the state line and trifinium, although I
still
> have not seen corroborating material to justify its exact
location.
>
> My plan for this weekend is to walk the ND-SD line from the
witness
> monument to the river, possibly swim across the river and
back, maybe
> make a few measurements with tape measure, GPS, etc, and
take a number
> of photos of the area. I think this will give me a class B visit,
> although I am willing to settle for a B- since I still don't know the
> exact trifinium coordinates.
>
> If anyone will be nearby and is interested, I will be at the
witness
> monument probably between 8AM and 10AM CDT on Sunday.
>
> Regards,
> BJB