Again, please see my insertions below.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "aletheia kallos" <aletheiak@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 7:48 AM
Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] Re: The Journal of Andrew Ellicott
> bravo
> in general
>
> & a specific hurrah below
Thank you very much!
> who knows
> we may even get another multipoint out of such a nice
> convergency
We might, indeed! If there is conjunction between Ellicott and the public land
survey, the only candidates for tripoints upon Ellicott mounds would be the
intersections of Mississippi county lines with LAMS. This is explained in the
next insertion.
> the only thing i dont get about this is
> if both the mound series & the section corner pin
> series are spaced more or less exactly a mile apart
> as we believe
> then if any one corner pin has been synched with a
> mound
> wouldnt both entire series then stand in such perfect
> or near perfect
> alignment
>
> so maybe my shrug is not only misguided in one place
> but everywhere
Even if the initial point of Louisiana's St. Helena Meridian is identical with
that of Mississippi's Washington Meridian, and if both are identical with
Ellicott's mound 24, only the Mississippi section corners could be singing in
unison with Ellicott's mounds. The Louisiana section corners would be expected
to be out of sync. This takes some explaining of the peculiarities of the
public land survey, so here goes:
In making the public land survey, one first establishes the INITIAL POINT.
Next, the PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN is surveyed as a true meridian (a straight line)
through the initial point. Next, the BASE LINE is surveyed as a true parallel
(a curved line) through the initial point. Along each of these, each
eighth-mile is marked.
Next, the land is divided into QUADRANGLES that are 24 miles square (but often
30 or 36 miles square in the older surveys). To make the quadrangles, we first
survey STANDARD PARALLELS as true (curved) parallels every 24 (or 30 or 36)
miles, parallel to the base line and through the appropriate mile marks on the
principal meridian. All lines surveyed thus far extend to the far limits of the
area to be covered. This is not true of the next step. Why not? Because
meridians converge. The lines in the next step are GUIDE MERIDIANS, spaced 24
(or 30 or 36) miles apart. They are true (converging) meridians, surveyed due
north only--never southward--from appropriate mile marks on the curved base line
and each of the curved standard parallels. Guide meridians extend north only to
the next standard parallel, which they do not hit at mile marks. Why? Guide
meridians start out the right distance apart at their south ends, but
convergence makes them all closer together at their north ends. Before they can
run northward beyond the next standard parallel, they must jog over to the
appropriate mile mark. They always jog in the direction away from the prime
meridian.
Thus, we have created quadrangles of 24 (or 30 or 36) miles that are not quite
perfect squares. To divide them into townships that are nominally six miles
square, we survey RANGE LINES as true (converging) meridians northward from
every sixth mile mark along the southern side of each quadrangle, and we run
TOWNSHIP LINES as straight lines (not curved parallels) to connect appropriate
mile marks on range lines.
In dividing townships into sections, we want to produce as many regular sections
(with exact one-mile sides) as possible. To achieve this, an elaborate dance of
lines is run, creating 36 sections roughly from southeast to northwest within
each township. Section lines are neither true parallels nor true meridians.
They are straight lines parallel with the eastern and southern boundaries of
their township. This throws the effects of convergence to the west and throws
all acceptable errors and effects of instrumental limitations to the north and
west within each township. It theoretically produces 25 regular sections out of
the 36, only those along the northern and western tiers being irregular.
The above is a description of how it's supposed to work. Surveyors sometimes
got lazy or improvised to adapt to real-world situations--so your actual mileage
may vary.
Of course, the lands along the western portion of LAMS were already in private
hands under British and Spanish titles prior to the arrival of US federal
surveyors. Therefore, only the township grid is in place there. The highly
irregular "sections" are the existing holdings within their metes and bounds.
Farther east along LAMS, where unoccupied lands were encountered, the normal
section grid is found. Thus, only the Mississippi range lines in the west, and
the Mississippi section lines in the east would be expected to hit mile marks on
LAMS. The similar Louisiana lines should have been surveyed northward from many
miles south and would suffer from convergence.
An exception, though, seems to be the range line at the valley wall, 24 miles
west of the principal meridian. Here, the Louisiana and Mississippi range lines
match. This is inexplicable in terms of the public land survey, but it makes
sense in light of the practical geography. The Louisiana range line could
hardly have been surveyed from the south because it's only about five miles long
before it encounters the Mississippi River, which is the limit of the land
covered by the St. Helena Meridian. Since it had to be surveyed from the north,
it matches the neighboring Mississippi range line. I might also match
Ellicott's original point D.
> wow thats our friend john
>
> well on his way already too
Yes, and yes! I haven't heard back from him yet, but I still expect to.
> jack may also be able to fill us in btw from his copy
> of this book
> in case he is tuned in too
> as i hope
Great! The nearest library copy is at my three-time alma mater in Baton Rouge.
Jack, are you out there?