The Line

[Peter Petto]

Following up on recent conversation here...

I don't know all the details, actually I don't remember them -- even though
an enthusiastic surveyor pal of mine has told them to me many a time. Mason
& Dixon's job involved more than marking a straight line of latitude.

Originally the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland would have had the
southernmost part of Philadelphia and more importantly, most of the fertile
& productive counties of Lancaster & York in Maryland.  But the king who
granted the Calvert's charter was deposed and the new guy wasn't too fond
of Catholics, so the line got moved south.

The surveying task involved swinging a 12 mile arc from the New Castle
(Delaware) courthouse and finding its tangent point to the mid-peninsular
line that divides Maryland and Delaware (I'm not sure but mebbe it's a line
of longitude). This point is the tip of the infamous Pennsylvania "wedge"
-- a sliver of land that extended a bit of Pennsylvania south of the major
Mason Dixon line. Recently (the 60s??) this land was ceded to Maryland.

Who know how the "Stargazers Stone," due west of Philly, fits into all this?

I suspect I'll find out more following the 30th -- or perhaps sooner if my
inter-library loan of the _Journals_ comes through before then.



Peter Petto         |       ppetto at apk.net
Bay Village, Ohio   |   PGP public key available