Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-05-10
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and strangely enough IL is property without live
~ stock grain punked down prairie that has
nothing in it of mineral value But despite its apparent
worthessness Uncle Sam, the owner won't sell 1t for
any price.
The property-known as Meade's Ranch-gets its
fabulous the fact that mapmakers biologists,
geographers men, experts and mining engn-
GERS all depend fixed point on 1t for making their
geodetc surveys
wouldn't be able map lines determine the exact
heights locations of important points establish borders
OF countries and determine the Of States or large
lakes and
The fact that Meade's ranch has become we'll known
throughout the world makes it impossible for Uncle Sam
it-evcn he wished change this fixed point
would upset the whole mapmal<ing industry,
Regardless of and map changes, there still re-
exactly 100000 square miles of land the globe
which require constant mapping and remappng Because
Meades Ranch the center of this vast area it has
been adopted by the entire Western Hemisphere and by
most Of continental Europe the principal trianGuation
station.
throughout the world linked
with the latitude and longitude of Meades Ranch which
is Osborne County Even the Effel
Tower Paris and the Royal Observatory England two
triangulation stations, tied in with it.
To understand just how the map-makers use Meades
Ranch all you have do is to remember bit of trig
onometry. Triangulaton is just scientific term for
measuring distances that too large to be conveniently
marked off with tape measure Determining the width
of river, a great canyon. is typical task
a surveyor has do is take a sight dis
tant object-lke hill from two different points that
are known distance apart He measures off the
Of the other sides of the triangle he knows the
exact length Of his base line
BY this simple method geodetc surveyor, who takes
the of the earth surface map
country accurately without pacing off every foot of it.
Maps the world simply built up out of system of
trangles- of which get their start from the little
marker Meade's Ranch.
To the map-maker. this spot is known North Lat-
ude 50 degrees 1926 North and Longitude 9S degrees
32305O6 West Of Greenwich So important this group
ing of figures that letter mailed from any part of the
world bearing only these markings the address would
be delivered at Meades IL miles north of Lucas
This ranch originally selected the keypoint In
1891 The first marker consisted Of nothing but bottle
filled with ashes and buried three below the earths
surface mark the form marble post
inches square and approximately three feet long
placed flush with the ground On the marker two
grooves right angles the intersection of which indicated
the center of the station.
In 1922 the United States Coast Ceodetic Survey
replaced the old marking with inscribed metal tablet
heavy block of concrete and placed "a inches
the ground. The surface mark similar the
old one except that it projects
ground the tablet is the date of establishment.
Every home business building plot of ground your
home tied up with Meades Ranch by imaginary
cussEross spider web series Of lines Every time
map is made tract Of land plotted route high
way line charted the longitude latitude
Uncle Sans property fixes the region on the Little
wonder then that Uncle Sam puts high value this
tiny strip Of Kansas.
Although Meads IL the central rianguiation station for
South America, there other geo
detc stations parts Of the United States Can
ada Mexico and the South American countries The
position these stations determined by astronomical
observations corrected by triangulation
Connecting all these points his maps and addnl the
angles the In which he interested the surveyor
geographer anyone else scientifically figure the
Of certain plots where borders should be-
anything else
photographic surveyors whose job 1T is the
area shape and depths Of bodies same
triaDgulaOu stations aided by souudiues Through
channels suHIeH reefs banks ard navigation
ards are chartcd and ocean depths determined
The work OF the surveyor the mapmaker has been
made easier and specded up through serial photography.
With plane is possible 10 take pictures
scale and work the by making the
computations directly on the maPphotograph