BittenApple's Imaginary Lines #1 – Winchester Line
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This is the first cache of a series I've started that celebrate those imaginary lines that are so important to our lives, but don't actually exist when you are standing on it! Congrats to bekitah on her first FTF!
This cache is an easy PNG on the way to Graceland, and the location is more important than the hide. Any experienced Cacher will know where to look immediately.
The Location – The cache site is just south of Winchester Street, which marks the former Winchester Line. The Winchester Line was first surveyed as the southern border of Tennessee by General James Winchester, one of the 3 original founders of the city of Memphis, TN. He was attempting to determine the location of the 35th parallel from the Tennessee River west to the Mississippi River. He missed, but since he was doing this in the early 19th century with nothing more than a compass and math, he should be forgiven. This is particularly true since later surveyors didn’t do much better.
The rest of the story is below, from Williams, Samuel Cole, LLD., Former Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, Chapter XIV, pp.105-1-8, Beginnings of West Tennessee, In the Land of the Chickasaws, 1541-1841, Watuaga Press, Johnson City, Tennessee, 1930.
“The State of Mississippi, as well as the Chickasaws, was not willing to recognize it as correct. The lower Chickasaw Bluff and young Memphis tempted the State of Mississippi to reopen the question. In January, 1829, Governor Brandon in a message to the legislature of that State urged that the line should be retraced. In 1831, the Governor reported to that body that an experimental survey by Maj. John Holland for Mississippi disclosed that the Winchester line was so nearly correct that further agitation was unnecessary. The fact was that the Winchester line was too far north; and Mississippi thought to back off. But Tennessee was now the unwilling party. The surveyor, John Thompson, made a like report, and Governor Wm. Carroll insisted that Mississippi carry her own suggestion to the ultimate.
In January, 1837, a report to the Mississippi legislature maintained that the Winchester line was a legal one; but a commission was appointed (B.A. Ludlow, D. W. Connelly and W. Petrie) to meet commissioners in behalf of Tennessee (J. D. Graham and Austin Miller). By astronomical observations they determined that the line was so far south of that of Winchester that the domain of Tennessee was augmented by 215,927 acres. They marked the line from a point on the Tennessee River six chains south of the mouth of Yellow Creek to a point on the Mississippi opposite Cow Island. Their report was ratified and their line was declared the true one in the Mississippi Constitution of 1890. Recent government surveys demonstrate that this line is about one-half mile south of the true latitude.”
So, Winchester Street used to be the state border, and this cache used to be in Mississippi!
Please note that since I do not live in the area, local maintenance will be done by accarp04. Thanks again Carpenter family!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Guvf pnpur vf raYVTUGravat.