Ellicott Stone

[+jeff35080]

Please forgive this somewhat off-the-wall post but one of our fellow benchmarkers is attempt to reach the Ellicott Stone in Mobile and I wanted to make sure he gets this info before he starts his trip:

 

The stone is accessible to the public. Take I-65 South the Exit 19 then take Hwy 43N approximately 8-1/2 miles to an area where you can pull off on the side of the road. There is a pathway that you can follow that leads over a set of railroad tracks. The path leads directly to the stone. I got this information from an Alabama Power employee who is familiar with it and works at the Barry Steam Plant where the stone is located.

 

I hope that this is helpful and make sure to take plenty of pictures of this historic surveying point

Edited January 13, 2004 by jeff35080

[+JoGPS]

Jeff do you have a link to the page it sounds cool....................JOE

[+jeff35080]

Here ya go:

 

http://www.aspls.org/history/

 

here's another:

 

http://www.lemoynecap.com/community.htm

[+JoGPS]

Thanks "BUDDY" thats way toooooooooooo cool..............JOE

[Wild T2]

The surveying instrument that he ran the line with is at the Smithsonian.

 

http://americanhistory2.si.edu/surveying/o...rdnumber=758993

[ArtMan]

The Alabama Society of Professional Land Surveyors has an interesting web page (with pictures) on the Ellicott Stone, set in 1799. The article mentions the installation of a brass disk "drilled into top of stone to provide 'a more accurate point' by the USCGS in 1936."

 

Station BH0102, O 9 ELLICOTT STONE, is described as follows:

 

STATION DESCRIPTION

 

'DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1938

'SEE STATION ELLICOTT STONE ECC.

 

STATION RECOVERY (1951)

 

'RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1951

'2.8 MI N FROM LEMOYNE.

'ABOUT 2.8 MILES NORTH ALONG THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY FROM THE ROAD

'CROSSING AT LEMOYNE, ABOUT 116 YARDS EAST OF TRACK, 128 YARDS EAST AND

'ACROSS TRACK FROM TELEPHONE POLE NO. 680, THE TOP OF HIGHEST POINT OF

'ELLICOTT STONE WHICH IS A NATURAL SLAB OF STONE ABOUT 6 INCHES THICK,

'1 1/2 FEET WIDE AND 2 FEET HIGH AND INSCRIBED U.S. LAT. 31 1799 -

'DOMINIA DE. S. M. CAMILOS IV LAT 31 1799. NOTE-- THE STONE IS NOT

'HARD AND THE TOP IS WEATHERING AND WEARING. AN ALABAMA GEOD. SURVEY

'DISK IS SET IN TOP OF CENTER OF STONE BUT NOT AT THE HIGH POINT.

 

Wandering Palms has provided a nice photo on the BH0103 page.

 

BH0102 (ELLICOTT STONE ECC) is located about 40 meters away.

[+jeff35080]

patw is who is going to go see it and I hope he gets my email or sees this thread before he leaves on his trip. Heck, Mobile is only 4 hours from B'ham so I may try to visit it this spring. It's really a cool piece of history.

[+Klemmer]

Very interesting. I notice in Elllicott's Bio, he was the same Ellicott I'm familiar with from his work on the Niagara River (near Buffalo NY). I grew up near there, remember a monument up there somewhere with his name on it, and have fished in Ellicott Creek, and partied in Ellicott Creek Park! [i'm in CA now, or I'd post some pics from there]. Maybe there are some survey marks of his up there somewhere......

[CallawayMT]

I just wanted to Thank jeff35080 for pointing this great Historic mark out. I was just there a few hours ago and really enjoyed seeing such a unique monument. I came down to Florida to visit my parents for a few days and they just happened to be going over to Biloxi,MS; and this wasn't far out of the way. I would have never noticed nor seen this one without your post.

 

This is well worth going to see and not very hard to get to. The only real shame is that the roadside pulloff seems to be used for partying and dumping of garbage.

 

Thanks again

[+patw]

Yes, Jeff, I did receive the information in time. Thanks for the effort and display of community spirit in making the effort to provide it.

 

Shirley and I are now enroute from Portland, OR, down to the LA area via Rte 1, across to Florida on I-40 and I-10, and then up to rural NY State, some 6600 miles. We have made notes on six of the 38 Initial Points which we hope to recover on this trip and so far have initial points at Meridian, Idaho, the Willamette Stone in Portland, OR and HS5150 at Mt Diablo, CA. (We have some 400 waypoints in the gps for both caches and bench marks, mostly bench marks.)

 

Unfortunately C White's book on the 38 GLO IP's did not arrive before we took off but we just figure that will be the spring board for yet another IP search this summer.

 

We may try a tentative thread on our progress if there is interest.

 

Thanks again! . . . . patrick & shirley