UPDATE 1/8/2021 Scrub brush area around the marker has been cleaned up so much easier to go final 10' to GZ. Now option to go from published parking up gravel road to Marshall Bridge Preserve and its parking lot--much shorter walk from there.
On new Auburn Valley Trail located in Auburn Heights Preserve, Delaware's newest addition to state park system. This trail is a paved trail for hikers, bikers and very old steam powered cars that belong to a special collection at Auburn Heights. During special times, Steaming Days the park is open for tours and rides. The loop trail is about 1.3 miles long and has evevation gain of 150 feet at high point of the trail.
Normal state park fees apply (Unless you have annual pass) $4 in state, $8 out of state.
This cache was intended to be part of the FSC but delays in obtaining a state park permit prevented that. So here it is a little late!
The cache is about a 0.3 mile walk from parking to the cache and is about a 100 foot elevation gain. Follow the paved trail and when the GPS arrow points hard right it is either time to bushwhack or continue on the trail to the dirt path that leads toward the cache. GZ should be easy to spot from 300 feet away--your are looking for a 1892 stone boundary marker.
Historical Background
Delaware’s arc boundary dates from a deed to William Penn from the Duke of York on August 24, 1682, which granted Penn:
“ All that the Towne of Newcastle otherwise called Delaware and All that Tract of Land lying within the Compass or Circle of 12 Miles about the same scituate lying and being upon the River Delaware in America ”
This land was managed as part of the other Penn Family grants that included to Colony of Pennsylvania. In 1701, Isaac Taylor of West Chester County and Thomas Pierson of New Castle County were appointed to survey and mark the boundary from the Delaware River westward for 120 degrees or two-thirds of a semicircle. Because of errors in this difficult survey, the arc is a compound curve with several different radii. At the time this survey was only a boundary between New Castle County which was one of the ‘Lower Three Counties of Pennsylvania” and Chester and Delaware Counties that were part of the Pennsylvania grant. The Lower three counties later gained semi-independence from Pennsylvania and had their own legislature and later became the state of Delaware.
In 1892, W.C. Hodgkins, Office of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, was contracted by a joint commission to survey and monument the Delaware-Pennsylvania boundary. Hodgkins extended the northern boundary of Maryland eastward acro ss the top of the Wedge to the 12-mile Circle. This created the Top of the Wedge Line. Hodgkins then marked the 12-mile Circle every half-mile. Including the initial point (Arc Corner Monument) and a terminal point there are 46 monuments. The initial and terminal stones are made of dark gneiss of the Wilmington Complex and bear the names of the commissioners representing Pennsylvania and Delaware. The rest of the stones are pryamidic frustums of gray gneiss monuments, 10 inches square at the top and projecting from 2 to 30 inches above the ground. The half-mile stones bear a "1/2" on their west side. The mile stones bear a "P" on the north face, a "D" on the south face, the mile number from the initial stone on the west face, and the date 1892 on the east face.