The coordinates listed above will take you to a historic marker
near the highway. Based on the information below determine the
location of the actual cache.
The cache is located 408 feet away at a reverse azimuth of 298°
Please be sure that nobody sees you at the cache site. I don't want
to replace this container again. The easiest way to reach the cache
is to follow the path to a clearing. Then follow the clearing until
you are very near the cache then enter the woods.
I have placed some trash bags in the cache. Please grab one and
help me and all other geocachers practice Cache In Trash Out. This
area can use it.
Now for the real treasure.
Ellicott Stone
To get there simply follow the trail. It will lead you directly to
it.
Here is the history lesson. Article below copied unedited from:
Alabama Society of Professional Land Surveyors (www.aspls.org)
The Ellicott Stone is an international boundary marker or
landmark. It is the only known stone monument set by Major Andrew
Ellicott when he surveyed the line of demarcation between the
United States and Spain during the years 1798-1800. All other
monuments along the 1st U.S. Boundary were post mounds set
approximately every mile from the Mississippi River to the
Chattahoochee River
Andrew Ellicott, Esq., an astronomer and surveyor was
commissioned by George Washington to represent the U.S. as
Commissioner to carry out the provisions of the Treaty of San
Lorenzo el Real, also known as the Pinckney Treaty. Thomas Freeman
was appointed Surveyor.
Article 1 of the treaty delineated the boundary between Spain
and the U.S. as the 31st parallel of North Latitude. Ellicott set
the monument after his survey crew ran a guide or compass line from
the Pearl River near Natchez. He set up an astronomical observatory
on a bluff south of "Grog Hall". Today this bluff is called
Seymour's Bluff and stands fifty feet above the Mobile River.
Ellicott proceeded to take elevations and sightings on the
various stars, planets, the moon & the sun to calculate his
geographical position. This brown ferruginous sandstone monolith is
located in Mobile County, Alabama on the west side of the Mobile
River North of Le Moyne, Alabama.
The Ellicott Stone is also the initial point for all U.S. Public
Land surveys in the Southern part of Alabama & Mississippi. It
is the point of intersection of what is known today as the St.
Stephens Meridian & the St. Stephens Baseline. From 1803 until
after 1813, the U.S. Deputy Land Surveyors used the Ellicott Stone
to lay out the townships and ranges North of the 31st parallel.
After 1813 the survey of the townships South of Ellicott's mound
line were begun.
South Face of the Ellicott Stone which reads "Dominio De S. M.
Carlos IV, Lat.31., 1799"- set by the joint U.S./ Spanish survey
party on April 10, 1799. North Face of the Ellicott Stone which
reads "U.S., Lat.31., 1799"- set by the joint U.S./ Spanish survey
party on April 10, 1799. N.B.
1.) Crack in the upper right was caused by a careless tree
logger circa 1917
2.) Brass disk drilled into top of stone to provide "a more
accurate point" by the USCGS in 1936
3.) Hole below the date "1799" on the South face was caused by
buckshot circa 1974
4.) Holes to the right of "Lat. 31." on the North face was
caused by buckshot circa 1974
Copyright © 1999 - Gregory C. Spies - All rights reserved
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