Saturday’s ride took me as close as I could get to a place where one straight line intersects another in two places. And yes, this is with normal Euclidean geometry. It’s the place where the surveyor’s baseline which goes across lower Michigan from east to west is crossed by the Michigan meridian. These two lines “govern” the remaining survey of Michigan into townships and sections.

On this Royce map I’ve marked the two with thin red lines to make them stand out a little better. One can see how the numbering of townships and ranges starts from the zero point where the lines cross, which is at a place roughly between Mason and Jackson. That point was my Saturday destination.

Or rather, those two points were my Saturday destination.

googlemap

The reason I say two is because the east and west segments of the baseline don’t quite match up. They miss each other by about 920 feet (as measured by google map). Here I’ve marked the baseline in yellow. The line from the east takes a big jog to the south along the meridian, and then proceeds west. (My route for the day is shown in brown. The spot where the above photo was taken is shown by a blue pushpin. The two points of intersection are shown by blue balloon-shaped markers.)

BTW, I don’t know that surveyors say the baseline intersections the meridian at two points. It’s just my own way of talking.

One might think it’s like like two crews carving a tunnel out of a mountain, each starting from a different side and not quite meeting up in the middle. But I’m pretty sure the sequence of events was not anything like that. The wikipedia article on the Michigan Meridian has information about the two surveys, but I’m not sure it’s as simple as it describes, either. My impression is that the surveys took place over an extended period of time, and the lines were extended as needed to conduct the surveys of range and township lines. But exactly how this jog came about, I don’t know.

However it came about, I wanted to go as near as I could get to the two locations. I knew I couldn’t go right to the very spot(s), even though there is a state park that encompasses both locations. None of the section line roads goes to either of the two points, nor does any other road go there. The Michigan DNR web describes it very briefly:

This unique, landlocked park designates the spot where all township, range and section measurements begins for the entire state of Michigan. It is not accessible to the public, but is being preserved for its historic value.

On the web site there is a photo of a marker. From the latitude-longitude information it looks like it’s on the northern-most of the two points.

On my way I wished I had scrutinized the google-map satellite view more closely to see if there was a dirt road or anything leading to the spot. I didn’t expect to be able to ride on it, but maybe there would be a gate to bar access, and I could at least take a photo of that. But I hadn’t done that much preparation. And I came to realize that in the short amount of daylight available I wouldn’t have time to ride on both of the north-south roads that lie closest to the marker. So I had to decide which of the two to try.

On the east side is Meridian Road, which sounded promising. It’s appropriately named, but it doesn’t exactly follow the meridian at all points. And this is one of the places where it doesn’t. But my map showed a small stream between Meridian Road and the actual meridian. It wasn’t likely that there would be a bridge over it out in the middle of nowhere, I guessed.

On the west side was Cooper Road. I decided to try that one. I rode down it from the north, examining the roadside to the east for a likely-looking lane. But I got to the Jackson County line without seeing one. (The county line coincides with the baseline.) So I took the above photo in what light remained, and headed back to Leslie where Myra came to get me.

After I got home I studied the google satellite view and found a likely-looking farm lane that leads back to one of the two intersection points, though not by a straight line. What it looks like on the ground where it meets Cooper Road, I don’t know. I had ridden past it without noticing.

Mileage for the day: 60.0 (While waiting for Myra I made a few laps in the Felpausch parking lot to get over the 60-mile mark.)

YTD mileage: 2156.0

Late last December I learned that roadside memorials like the one shown here are somewhat controversial. I weighed in on the topic here and here, saying I encountered them often but didn’t have a photo of one. But just tonight I found out that I do. This one is almost a mile south of where I took the photo in the last post. (I see nothing wrong with stopping every mile to take a photo.)

There is even a wikipedia article about roadside memorials. It has links to more articles about the controversy.

I’m on the side of letting them be. They are a part of life that is not standardized, bureaucratized, and regulated. At least in Ohio, people just put them up. They don’t ask anybody’s permission. They don’t fill out any paperwork. They just do it. In some other states there are attempts to regulate them.

In some extreme cases there can be safety issues. But I suspect that for some people, there is simply an urge to reach out and regulate that which isn’t yet regulated.

The urge to regulate is not just a feature of modern society. Back in the winter of 1996-1997 before this project of bicycling to history sites took shape, I was spending evenings in the library looking for reminiscences about the Black Hawk war in Michigan. I encountered two anecdotes that I wish I could find again. But at the time they weren’t what I was looking for, so I didn’t record anything about them. I’ve gone back many times, checking and re-reading many of the materials I thought I had looked at back then, but without being able to find them.

One of them was someone’s recollection of a young and vigorous Winfield Scott at the Dearborn armory, shirt-sleeves rolled up, selecting weapons and equipment by lantern-light for the troops that were on their way to fight Black Hawk. The author noted the contrast with the image of “Old Fuss and Feathers,” as Scott came to be known later in life.

The other is about the urge to regulate. It was about an early township meeting in Jackson County, Michigan. Someone at the meeting wanted to enact an ordinance to prohibit the selling of whiskey to Indians. When it was pointed out to him that that meant the Indians would take their business elsewhere, he then wanted to enact an ordinance requiring people doing business with Indians to have whiskey available for sale. That episode epitomizes the urge to regulate. But I have not been able to find the anecdote again, despite much searching. I don’t know if the name of the person was given, but if it was, I’d look hard for more information about him and some way to make a Sunday afternoon bicycle ride out of it.

Back to the photo. The land on the right side of the road is Section 4 of Township 7S, Range 7E. That on the left is Section 5. A Shelby County history says this about the settlement of Jackson Township, of which this land is a part:

So far as we have been able to ascertain, but one family, that of James McCormick, came here as early as 1831, from Greene County, and entered land in section 34. The year 1832 shows no accessions, so far as we can learn, while the following year it appears Andrew Nogle came from Fairfield County and occupied land in section 30. Again, the year 1834 only shows the arrival of Thomas Cathcart, who came here in March from Montgomery County and entered land in the northwest corner of section 33. The next year it appears David Snider came from Montgomery County, and William Johnston, who settled in section 20. In 1837 John W. Knight entered land in section 17, Jeptha M. Davis in section 4…

The land across the road, on the right, was the land purchased by this Jeptha M. Davis. (I looked it up online at the GLO land patent database.) The land patent certificate says he was from Clark County. In checking the records for Section 5, the section where the memorial is placed, I learned that the land directly in front of the camera was also purchased by a man from Clark County, a James Elliott. It looks like that purchase was made a couple of years after Davis’s.

It could very well be that Elliott and Davis had also been neighbors back in Clark County.