--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "jparsell"
<jparsell@n...> wrote:
> Michael,
> Congrats on being the first to get pictures of the new
> marker. While it may be only a signpost indicating the
> tri-point is near by, it is vastly better than what we
> had before. I would like to use the tower picture in my
> book in place of the tree by the fence line, but I need
> some more info.
many thanxxx jack
it will be my honor whether you follow alflabetical order or not
also just let me know if you would like the pix or negs
> I can't clearly make out the dates on the sign. When
> Geo. Washington surveyed 1769? Also boundary between
> Spain and US from 1795? until 1821?
oops
here it all is as follows
this marks the location where the 31st parallel from the
mississippi river meets the chattahoochee river
andrew ellicott
at the direction of president george washington
first surveyed this border in 1799
this was the boundary line between spain & the united states
from 1795 until 1821
today this is where georgia alabama & florida converge
1 january 2000
> Next, how far south of the tower is the Florida State
> Line sign shown in one of the pictures?
not at all south of the tower but due west of it on the alfl line
i think
curiously i had previously encountered that very sign almost
completely obscured by veggies & facing north
for benefit of downstream river traffic
but it was then posted about 50 or 100 feet farther south
& thus it was only a notice & not yet a true marker at that time
evidently it was found & reappropriated & corrected to that extent
as well as pivoted 90 degrees toward the rising sun
for the millennial celebration & monumentation
man i know they like to gather together at demdpa for thanxgiving
but this must have been quite a multiconvergency shindig
> That would seem
> to indicate that the tower is several yards into Alabama.
it is probably centered on the alfl state line no more than 3 yards
due west of true alflga
so yes into alabama in that limited sense
i mean
since this project was done by the state surveyors societies i
guess we have to be satisfied that the tower & probably the state
line sign too are precisely straddling the alfl line
but the project leaves much to be desired punctologically
like the flagrantly obvious degminsec error
& other inexactitudes within the inscription
as also previously observed
> Is the latitude of the State line sign where you think
> the tri-point should be?
yes
for the above reasons
& also because i had independently found the tripoint latitude &
position myself using a topo long before the monumenters
i do think the state line sign & tower very probably do sit on the
latitude of the true tripoint
& of course not really on the 31st parallel nor at 31d00m00s
as proclaimed
> Also, how much farther south of the State line sign
> is the new 8 ft fence which terminates by the stump of
> the tree we used to consider to be the tri-point?
i think you are thinking of the tree by the barbed wire fence
as shown in your book
& which i didnt reexamine
so that one may not yet be a stump at all
but the barbed wire has been replaced by the 8foot barrier fence
all this is probably
i am guessing now
about 200 or 300 feet downstream
or roughly due south
from the tower & state line sign
the stump i flashed here recently is of a different tree
which was shown standing over me at an earlier visit
in the last pic in that same sequence of 4
i think the difference in our determinations of alflga at that time
was owing to the fact that i was using only the topo
which led me right to the head of the abutting swale
while you & others were diverted south to that small degree
by the selective availability on the gps at that early date
as well as by the apparently definitive but actually misleading
barbed wire
poetically tho i think you really may have been standing precisely
on the true 31st parallel at that point
or an extremely good guess at it
> Finally, do you have any route suggestions you are willing
> to share to help others get there?
boating 2 miles up the chattahoochee from the nearest launch is
good in high water but leaves a hairy scramble up the bank in
low water
probably better is bushwacking 2 miles east along alfl from the
irwin creek dam in chattahoochee state park
soon the barrier fence will kick in & prevent you from straying too
far south
& thickets of prickers swamps etc will deflect you from just
following the fence
so you will practically be forced a good ways northward into
alabama
but without navigational aid it is easy to stray too far north also
by following the general flow of the clearings & trails & paths
so a sunny day or compass etc might be a good idea too
but really all you have to do is somehow manage to emerge from
the woods anywhere along the bank of the river
& then follow the river south to the tower
cant miss it