I have interspersed my newest thoughts below.
Mike wrote:
> all the right stuff lowell
Thank you!
> we still dont know which direction the stitch will run in
The 1877 arbitrators who first promulgated the low-water mark for MDVA described
the boundary "Beginning at the point on the Potomac River where the line between
Virginia and West Virginia strikes the said river at low-water mark..." To me,
the acceptance of the arbitration by Maryland, Virginia, and the Congress, gives
their blessings to a projection of the terminal bearing of dry VAWV as the
neceasary stitch between MDWV's south bank and MDVA's low-water mark. Since the
stitch would be a segment of MDVA, and would in no wise affect West Virginia, I
think that the arbitrators had full authority to answer that question and have
done so.
> & therefore wont know where the tripoint position falls
> til we learn precisely what is meant by the south bank for mdwv
Correct. The only uncertainty is the precise location of the south bank. Since
the riverside is steep, this should be relatively easy to determine. My best
guess would be the high-water mark that is kept free of vegetaion by the waters.
> & til we see the 1927 mathews & nelson map for mdva
> for they themselves may have foreseen & included part or all of this
> stitch
> or incorporated it in their own terminal mdva reach
> when they realized the final headland they were sighting against was
> not on the va bank at all
> but on the irrelevant wv bank
Perhaps they did sew the stitch and/or draw a headland line, but I think that
the 1877 MDVA arbitrators' notion of headland lines was as an alternative to the
inclusion of "arms, inlets, creeks, or affluents" within the river. I have not
been there, but on maps I see none of these at the point in question; only a
rather normal curve in the river bank.
> but in any case
> that final map of theirs is probably indispensable for making mdvawv
I agree, of course.
The Mathews-Nelson work is entitled:
Report on the location of the boundary line along the Potomac River
between Virginia and Maryland in accordance with the Award of 1877; by Edward B.
Mathews, state geologist of Maryland, Wilbur A. Nelson, state geologist of
Virginia.
It is 48 letter-size pages, with six folded maps.
Without doing an exhaustive library catalog search, I find it at William & Mary,
VMI, the Tulsa City/County Library, and the many repository libraries of the
Maryland Geolocical Survey listed at
www.mgs.md.gov/esic/publications/pubdepot.html .
It can also be ordered on microfiche from the Maryland Geological Survey for
$5.00 plus $1.00 shipping! Go to www.mgs.md.gov/esic/publications/pubcat21.html
and scroll down to Volume XII. It is the Appendix to that volume.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA