many happy returns lowell
excellent photo
& message 9429 or bus&ss p102 has one for good measure
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "Lowell G. McManus"
<mcmanus71496@m...> wrote:
> Yesterday, I celebrated my 51st birthday with a visit to the only
existing
> former international boundary monument located in the interior
of the United
> States.
>
> Attached is a photo of a granite monument set on April 23,
1841, by a joint
> commission of the United States of America and the Republic
of Texas. It is
> located on the dry segment of the current boundary between
Louisiana and Texas
> about 2ΒΌ miles north of the Sabine River wet segment. It is
about 170 feet
> north of the point where Louisiana Highway 765 meets Texas
Farm Road 31 at the
> boundary a few miles north of Logansport, Louisiana.
>
> The monument is actually perfectly vertical. The tilt of my
camera was
> influenced by the tilt of the steel pipe enclosure around the
monument. The
> letters "R.T." on the west side stand for "Republic of Texas."
The letters
> "U.S." appear on the east side. The inscription on the south
side reads,
> "Meridn. Boundary/Established A. D. 1840." The north side is
blank. The
> monument engraved "1840" was ordered in advance, but the
commission did not get
> it placed until 1841. The commission attempted to alter the "0"
in the year
> into a "1." The shaft is nine inches square and ten feet long,
over half being
> in the earth. The now-repaired crack running through the letter
"d" in the word
> "Boundary" occurred when early 20th-century loggers felled a
tree on the
> monument.
>
> One of the US members of the joint commission that surveyed
this boundary was a
> young civilian civil engineer and native of Spain named George
G. Meade.
> Twenty-two years later as a Major General, he would command
the Union Army at
> the Battle of Gettysburg.
>
> Lowell G. McManus
> Leesville, Louisiana, USA