sbrosemer

A photo album of the June 24, 2005 Commemorative Event has been added to the First Guide Meridian East Event Home Page. Please follow the following link if you would like to view it: http://geotechinc.net/1GMEpa.htm There is also a little about the Cast Iron Monument and the 6th P.M. (Initial Point) along the baseline between Kansas and Nebraska.

Thanks to boundsgoer for the excellent reply to question concerning monuments vs. theoretical positions. This concept is English Common law that has been codified by most States, including Kansas and Nebraska. For instance, Kansas Statutes (19-1422) requires the following: "First, Section and quarter-section corners, and all other corners established by the government survey, must stand as the true corners. Second, They must be re-established at the identical spot where the original corner was located by the government surveyor, when this can be determined." So knowing when a certain corner was established is necessary in order to determine the level of expected accuracy. To those that wish to know the lat/long of the First Guide Meridian East stone, we found it to be: N40°00'03.8" W096°27'49.3"

I would like thank any geocachers that made it to the event on June 24, 2005. The importants of this stone on the Baseline is that it marked the furthest west the General Land Office decided to survey before it started the dividing of Nebraska and Kansas into Townships and Ranges and then into Sections so that private sale and location were possible. The First Guide Meridian East line was the first Public Land Survey System lines run into KS and NE. This 1855 survey also corrected a serious error in the location of the Baseline made by Johnson the year before. The resurvey of the Baseline was commenced from the Cast Iron Monument on the West High Bank of the Missouri River, as shown in the great photo above. John C. Calhoun, Surveyor General for this Area, had already decided that from the Cast Iron Monument that our Deputy Surveyors would started the surveying of Kansas and Nebraska. After the lines were run north and south and then east by Charles Manners (NE)and Joseph Ledlie (KS) from this First Guide Meridian East (1GME) stone, then Manners came back the following year to this stone (refered to then as the 60 Mile Corner), and extended the 40th Parallel 48 more miles west and then set the stone at the 6th Principal Meridian. That is why the 1GME stone is on the Range line between Ranges 8 and 9 East (8 Ranges East of the soon to be monumented 6th P.M. corner and 10 Ranges west of the Cast Iron Monument). Townships are number from the Baseline North (NE) or South (KS). That was June 11, 1856, not 1855 as shown on the BLM map above. BTW, both Manners and Ledlie were using Bert's Improved Solar Compass to determine their lat/long and to run their "true" lines. The compass was only used on overcast days! So chronology is like this: May 8, 1855 Charles Manners sets the Cast Iron Monument and starts west. Ledlie out west at the 1GME discovers the huge error in the Baseline. May 21, 1855 Manners and Ledlie arrive back at Fort Leavenworth to await the return of Calhoun for instructions. June 14, 1855 Manners starts the resurvey of the Baseline. June 24, 1855 Manners sets stone at the 60 Mile corner with Ledlie. June 28, 1855 Manners and Ledlie start surveying the 1GME North and South, respectively. June 11, 1856 Manners sets the stone at the 6th P.M. by running 48 miles west from the 1GME stone. Ledlie goes South into Kansas and Manners into Nebraska to survey the 6th P.M. From the timeline above one can see that the 1GME marker is as important as any of the other two. Please go to: http://geotechinc.net/1GME.htm to email me should you have any questions. I hope that this is not more information than any one cares to know. Steve Brosemer (sbrosemer) Land Surveyor Kansas Coordinator of the 1GME Event Kansas Society of Land Surveyors