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Random Thoughts
Flint1979:
Michigan has the baseline as 8 Mile Road and the Meridian as Meridian Road, for a bit it's called Meridian Line Road in the northern Lower Peninsula. I have followed Meridian Road for quite a distance before. It's a state highway in some areas mainly M-30 between M-20 and just north of Sugar River Road about 15 miles south of West Branch, it picks up again at a dead end south of Old M-55, ends at Old M-55 then picks up at another dead end north of I-75 which is running east and west in this area. I've seen a road called Section Line Road in the far northern Lower Peninsula and I haven't been able to confirm if it's Meridian Road but I think it is. Once it hits land in the U.P. in Cedarville it runs as M-129 until just south of M-28's eastern terminus where it shifts on an S curve to become Dixie Highway. Meridian there ends at M-28 then it picks up at I-75's business spur (I'm not sure the actual name of this road) but it then becomes a local street in Sault Ste. Marie. What a road though. On the south end, it goes into Ohio for about 2-3 miles becoming Fulton County Road 26 but I've never seen Meridian Road on that road, it enters Michigan on US-127.
CtrlAltDel:
--- Quote from: J N Winkler on January 23, 2023, 01:37:58 PM ---The thing I find interesting is that, with the exception of river boundaries and the Kansas-Nebraska border, there is no continuity of townships across state lines even when the areas on both sides have been surveyed to the same combination of baseline and principal meridian. For example, an oblong section of eastern Illinois is covered by the Second Principal Meridian and its baseline, which also cover nearly all of Indiana, and although they were fixed in 1805, there are still splinter townships on either side of the Illinois-Indiana line.
Now I am wondering if the presence of these splinter townships has to do not with whether surveying occurs after admission to the Union, but rather organization as a territory. The Illinois Territory was organized in 1809, after the Second Principal Meridian and its baseline were fixed, but the Indiana Territory was organized in 1800, albeit with lands that later became part of the Illinois and Michigan Territories.
As for county lines not breaking up PLSS sections, it will not surprise me if that norm is more or less universal in areas surveyed to the PLSS. However, I've done some looking into the Texas land survey system (which of course is completely separate from the PLSS) and it seems that while counties are not allowed to straddle the boundary of any railroad district (Texas has 12), a county line can divide lesser surveying units as long as both parts are within the same district.
--- End quote ---
They're not states, but I'm wondering how things work with the scraggly border between Alberta and Saskatchewan.
J N Winkler:
--- Quote from: CtrlAltDel on January 27, 2023, 10:13:03 PM ---They're not states, but I'm wondering how things work with the scraggly border between Alberta and Saskatchewan.
--- End quote ---
Much of western Canada is under the Dominion Land Survey, which is a near-clone of the PLSS. The boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan is the Fourth Meridian in this survey system, and was supposed to overlap longitude 110° West but ended up a few hundred yards to the west due to imprecise surveying methods.
Canada Lands Surveys (a unit of Natural Resources Canada) has index maps online, which show the survey townships for the prairie provinces.
--- Quote from: Flint1979 on January 23, 2023, 02:21:42 PM ---Michigan has the baseline as 8 Mile Road and the Meridian as Meridian Road, for a bit it's called Meridian Line Road in the northern Lower Peninsula. I have followed Meridian Road for quite a distance before. It's a state highway in some areas mainly M-30 between M-20 and just north of Sugar River Road about 15 miles south of West Branch, it picks up again at a dead end south of Old M-55, ends at Old M-55 then picks up at another dead end north of I-75 which is running east and west in this area. I've seen a road called Section Line Road in the far northern Lower Peninsula and I haven't been able to confirm if it's Meridian Road but I think it is. Once it hits land in the U.P. in Cedarville it runs as M-129 until just south of M-28's eastern terminus where it shifts on an S curve to become Dixie Highway. Meridian there ends at M-28 then it picks up at I-75's business spur (I'm not sure the actual name of this road) but it then becomes a local street in Sault Ste. Marie. What a road though. On the south end, it goes into Ohio for about 2-3 miles becoming Fulton County Road 26 but I've never seen Meridian Road on that road, it enters Michigan on US-127.
--- End quote ---
In Wichita, Meridian Avenue gets its name from the fact that it overlaps the Sixth Principal Meridian. It is also the west edge of Wichita Township, a named township in Sedgwick County that is also a survey township and which contained the entirety of the city of Wichita for several decades after the latter was founded. However, Meridian Avenue is not a continuous north-south roadway through Wichita, nor is much of its rural length paved. It is actually Ridge Road--three miles to the west, bisecting the first tier of townships west of the Sixth Principal Meridian--that has over 80 miles of pavement from the Ninnescah River bridge in northern Sumner County to Gypsum in southeastern Saline County, all continuous except for Eisenhower Airport in Wichita. Part of it was in the state highway system as K-86 (the Canton spur off US 56), and at its north end it is part of K-4 where the latter highway doglegs through downtown Gypsum.
CtrlAltDel:
--- Quote from: J N Winkler on January 27, 2023, 10:42:44 PM ---
--- Quote from: CtrlAltDel on January 27, 2023, 10:13:03 PM ---They're not states, but I'm wondering how things work with the scraggly border between Alberta and Saskatchewan.
--- End quote ---
Much of western Canada is under the Dominion Land Survey, which is a near-clone of the PLSS. The boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan is the Fourth Meridian in this survey system, and was supposed to overlap longitude 110° West but ended up a few hundred yards to the west due to imprecise surveying methods.
Canada Lands Surveys (a unit of Natural Resources Canada) has index maps online, which show the survey townships for the prairie provinces.
--- End quote ---
Argh, I meant the scraggly border between Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
J N Winkler:
--- Quote from: CtrlAltDel on January 27, 2023, 10:57:00 PM ---Argh, I meant the scraggly border between Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
--- End quote ---
That one does look like a case of the provincial boundary following DLS township lines. Each jog in the boundary, starting at the US border, seems to correspond to the DLS equivalent of a standard parallel and occurs after every fourth township as you go north, up to a point where the boundary meets the Second Meridian. From that point on, the boundary follows the meridian and there are splinter townships, at least on the Manitoba side.
Saskatchewan also has splinter townships in its middle, owing to the Third Meridian.
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