An examination of the 1874 atlas didn’t seem to suggest there were any property lines that would have remained even then to mark the treaty line of 1820 that formed the north boundary of Royce Area 114. (This is in contrast to the more famous Ten O’Clock line from the 1809 treaty, where there are several such marks on the map, and a few that are visible yet today.)

There is one possible exception, though. The above is a snippet of the Reserve Township map. The route of my October 7 bike ride is shown in red. In the middle of the blue circle is a triangular piece of land that is identified as being owned by a R Weight. (Or something like that. It’s not very clear on this copy.)

In fact, the photo below may have been of the building on that site. The building was definitely on the north side of the road, and was somewhere in the vicinity. Now I wish I had recorded exactly where it was, and whether the construction looked like something that could have been built before 1874.

And if I had had the 1874 atlas to study before my ride, I would have thought to look to see whether there was still an angling fencerow to mark an odd-shaped piece of property at that location. Chances are there is not, but that’s the sort of mark on the landscape that I like to look for.

But when I did this bike ride, I didn’t know I was in a place where I should look for such things. We had arrived in Rockville by car that afternoon. I simply thought I was taking a quick evening ride as a warm-up for the historical rides I would do in the next 2-3 days.