Rectangles and GPS

On Wednesday August 6 I wanted to see if there was still a farmstead at a place in Fountain County, Indiana, where a false scare of Indian war had taken place in 1826. It was a place where other settlers were said to have gone for safety. I stopped here at a half-mile post along the road. The land ahead, to the south, had been bought from the government by the person whose farm other settlers were said to have gone to. I was hoping to find a farmstead in the next half mile and sure enough, there was one right ahead on higher ground among the surrounding prairie — just the sort of place an American farmer-settler might have picked.

Googlemap-newtown

It was easy to know where to look because the roads here, while not they don’t form a perfect checkerboard, do largely follow the section lines. The googlemap shows the land isn’t quite as squared off as the area around Parish’s Grove to the north, but it is full of rectangles that make it easy to find one’s way and to know where one is.

I’m planning some riding in Ohio where it won’t be quite that simple.

This snippet is from the Puetz map of Belmont County, Ohio. This area is part of the Seven Ranges — the first part of the United States that was surveyed according to the rectangular survey system. The survey here was in neat squares — well, not quite so neat, because bugs were still being worked out of the system. But there are square mile sections. The problem is, the roads don’t follow those section lines.

The blue square above is supposed to be for the first land patent that was granted under this system. I got that information from this web site, but haven’t yet been able to verify it with lookups at the online database at the Department of Interior. But supposing the information is correct, it’s interesting to note that there is now an airport on part of that land. Maybe a piece of flat ground among the hills — a place flat enough for an airport over a century later — was what made that land attractive to one of the first buyers.

I presume the hills along the Ohio River are in part what kept roads from being built along the section lines. Note, though, that the small piece I’ve marked in red does follow a section line. The concept isn’t completely unknown in that part of the world. But far, most of the roads do not follow section lines.

The area I’m planning to visit is not quite so extreme. It has a road network that is more rectangular than that in this area near the Ohio River, but it still isn’t as rectangular as that near Newtown, Indiana, much less that of Benton County, Indiana.

So how to know where I am when I’m taking photos? Until now I’ve resisted getting a GPS. I like to use paper maps to find my way. I don’t just want to know what road to take. I want maps that can tell me about my surroundings, too. But I’ve given in somewhat. I’ve ordered the above item for my bicycle — a Sony GPS (GPS-CS1KASP). After each ride I should be able to download the data and use it to label my photo collection. I hope to get it in time for my next trip.