Mason-Dixon line

[kelber at mindspring.com]

This past week-end, my family was visiting friends in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and it occurred to me that since we were actually crossing the Mason-Dixon Line, we might as well try to track down some of the original markers.  The Mason & Dixon Line Preservation Partnership has a website www.eawebview.com/masondixon that gives the locations of all the markers located by a survey done in the early 1990’s.  We were driving up MD Rte 97 between Washington DC toward Gettysburg, PA.  I wanted to check out markers 75 and 76, which were accessible via a local byway called Ruggles Road.  We drove through Carroll County, Maryland and tried in vain to find a map of the county at numerous gas stations and convenience stores.  Finally, we passed the Carroll County Historical Society and bought a map there.  The woman in charge there had absolutely no idea where the Mason-Dixon line was.  She thought it was south of Maryland.  She gave us lots of pamphlets on the Battle of Gettysburg.

We decided to look for marker #71 first.  It was described in 1991 as being 500 feet west of Rte 97 at the border, and 2 feet NW of a 3-inch Mulberry tree.  We found the recently-harvested cornfield off the road, walked into it, and, being clueless city-morons, found ourselves ankle-deep in freshly-spread fertilizer.  We pressed on, and found the stone (the mulberry tree is now 7 feet high).  It was kind of exciting to see the stone, but it was the only one we got to see, being as we had to abandon our shoes on the roadside and roll up the shit-encrusted bottoms of our pants in order to get back in the car.  It seems like it would be a fun activity to look for all the markers.  It would be best to have knee-high rubber boots and mosquito-repellent along.  I haven’t been able to figure out what part of M & D corresponds to the marker we found.   All I know is that we were well west of the Susquehanna.