Wandering Sagebrush
Free Range Human
Site Team
RV LIFE Pro
If you own property, here’s how the physical location was described and documented in times gone by. Methods have changed, but not the result. We still depend on it.
Thanks for this heads up. I've run into quite a few township/range markers out in the middle of nowhere, which are always fun to see. Also I've found survey sticks on the tops of obscure summits that few people would visit.
Deb has given her talk on the NV/CA boundary survey a few times, about the long oblique line from Lake Tahoe to the Colorado River. It's quite a story, researched by LeRoy and Jean Johnson. One of the first boundary surveys was attempted in the mid-19th century that ended up a total fiasco. On USGS 7.5' maps you'll still see two lines along that border. It wasn't resolved until 1980 Supreme Court decision!
On a recent trip we explored along the line, finding several tall cairns on both sides of the line according to our GPS readings. We'll probably do more exploring along the line. Here's an example:
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Note, on my tagline under my avatar it says "The Historian." Not "The Beer Connosseur."David, we need to talk about your choice in cold carbonated soup.
On the other hand, that’s an interesting bit of history! Thanks for sharing.
Here's one for Deb. I don't know if you knew of or visited this site.
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This is the first train crossing into California on the narrow gauge Carson & Colorado Railroad, which ran from Mound House (near Virgnia City, Nevada), to Keeler, California (in the southern Owens Valley, southeast of Lone Pine). The construction and first train crossed this point in 1883. At the time, the von Schmidt boundary was the official state line. The obelisk is gone, but the base remains and is easily accessible. I found it in the late 1980s by parking at the stateline on US6, walked to the location and took these photos.
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Simulating the 1883 scene. The base is at the lower left. A beer can is seen (I imbibed in a can of Budweiser walking to the site).
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A close up of the base. The beer and my ever present microcassette recorder is on the base for scale.
Yeah, but the hike is less than 20 miles, Julie can see it without her "see mores", and there's nothing for her to climb ...Now Mr. Historian, we would have gone searching for this spot. Just saying.![]()