Meridian Baseline State Park, Michigan - Why does Michigan have two separate survey starting points?

Рет қаралды 19,080

2 жыл бұрын

Michigan was first surveyed in 1815. It was a wet year. Did that cause a mistake that makes Michigan the only state to have two initial surveying points? Maybe. . . but what's the story? We talk about it here.
I visit the Meridian Baseline State Park to explore the story of this state park and what caused Michigan to have two initial points.
💬 Let us know what you think of this adventure in the comment section below.
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🎥 Welcome to the Official Restless Viking KZfaq Channel where we peek behind Life's Curtain.
I'm Chuck "the Viking" and Martha "Poppins".
Chuck - I am the former director of the Fortune Bay Expedition Team.
➡️ Today, I am an expedition leader, adventurer, pilot, sailor and explorer. Poppins - I'm an educator, culture junkie and adventurer.
We travel the world less traveled. 🗺️
➡️ We hope to entertain, inspire and share knowledge through travel. We visit "non-tourist" destinations, remote locations and we get there in uncommon ways. 🎯
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Пікірлер: 81

@chrisstratton2191 6 ай бұрын

This guy is a phenomenal story teller! Pretty cool stuff.

@rogerkennedy8849 2 жыл бұрын

That's pretty wild

@PracticalKen 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing this history. I wasn't aware of it. Awesome.

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for stopping by!!

@FollowThomas 2 жыл бұрын

You have a nice channel. I'm glad I found it. Lots of cool history too 👍

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you found it too!

@Erth 5 ай бұрын

Thanks Chuck 🎉. I missed your stories .

@RestlessViking 5 ай бұрын

Welcome back!

@1000left 2 жыл бұрын

GREAT video!!!! Thank you!!!!

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

You are so welcome!

@tedanderson3438 8 ай бұрын

Nice job, you explained it better than my Michigan history teacher did 50ish years ago. He made me want to know more about this pleasant peninsula.

@The_Hiking_Viking Жыл бұрын

Fine Video Chuck. I've been to that Meridian park twice thanks to Geocaching. Been to a few of the Michigan Survey Baseline Obelisk markers too, the ones that are painted black and white, stand about ten feet tall. Those surveyors were manly men eh? Ha.

@nitetime395 Жыл бұрын

Thanks Chuck, I found your channel last week and been watching some of your videos. I moved 1/2 mile from that location 10 years ago. We watched them do the construction on it and when it was done checked it out. Not knowing anything about it. If I remember right the plaque at the parking lot says that the mackinaw bridge was laid out from that location.

@tobyhavaneese1557 7 ай бұрын

I just learned about your channel from a friend. What’s interesting is that as a geocacher I have visited a lot of the locations and this is one of them. Thanks for the history.

@RestlessViking 7 ай бұрын

Geocaching is a great research tool when you are trying to focus in on a historic location for an event or landmark. It seems locals place the caches based on knowledge you can't find in a book or online.

@marcosresto544 2 жыл бұрын

You have a new follower with me.😎 Thank you for your information. Keep it coming🌞

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent! Thanks!

@michaelwarden4621 2 жыл бұрын

Great video! I grew up off of Meridian Road in Pleasant Lake and never knew the story!

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@robc8468 2 ай бұрын

I live on Baseline RD In Allegan co Mi on Baseline Lake right next to the VanBuren County line.

@davedepond8408 Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@RestlessViking Жыл бұрын

Thank YOU!!

@PoetryMotel Жыл бұрын

I really like y'all's videos, nice to see real people doing things that real people do. Lol but it's a very welcomed change from all these precious "influencers" keep it up guys!

@RestlessViking Жыл бұрын

Thanks 👍

@EAGLEDRIVER77 2 жыл бұрын

Very informative, even at my age I learned something new. Thanks!👍🏻

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it!

@quadscrib229 Ай бұрын

We (wife and I) LOVE your channel. I’m sure that you get a lot of requests but we would love to see a video from you about Grand Ledge. Regardless please keep the great content coming!

@RestlessViking Ай бұрын

We did look into Grand Ledge and almost started a shoot, but were lacking some research. We look into again, no promises. Thanks for hanging out!

@quadscrib229 Ай бұрын

@@RestlessViking Either way please keep the great content coming. Now that weve picked up a boat we will be exploring several areas youve covered on the channel. Thanks again!

@thomassmith4975 2 жыл бұрын

Nice job!

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@jeannebrauher3587 2 жыл бұрын

This was very interesting!

@jeannebrauher3587 2 жыл бұрын

In the city park along M-46 in St Louis there is a marker of the geographical center of Michigan.

@korodski 2 жыл бұрын

💯🇺🇲

@PoetryMotel Жыл бұрын

Somebody doing videos that actually matter. Thank you.

@Coopersmith7718 2 жыл бұрын

Just mind blowing how hard a surveyor job was and the commitment and hardship they had to endure. Just thinking of the Logistics of moving all their supplies and keeping track of where they’re at and then resupplying. Then just surviving and not getting hurt.It’s just humbling.

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing work they did too.

@Rev1Kev 2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting part of Michigan’s history I did not know about, thanks Chuck!!!

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@dougmartin8664 8 ай бұрын

I am a native born Michigander, and I get my daily fix of Michigan on this channel thank you, Chuck and Poppins for your work. I enjoy it and get homesick at the same time.

@FjHenderson Жыл бұрын

Sounds like the Indiana and Michigan state line where the line turns south. The marker is land locked. It is pretty cool though to follow it south and stand in 3 states at the same time. Lol

@locoj7036 2 жыл бұрын

I’ve seen all your videos, and enjoyed them all. This one……might be my favorite

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Wow, thanks!

@mikebruno829 2 жыл бұрын

Super cool. History has a habit of often standing in our minds as something that we know "intellectually" is true, but in practice often feels like some mythical thing that we seem not to really believe "emotionally". That is what makes it so cool when someone has the insight and curiosity to make it manifest and reveal the actual echoes of the past so vividly in our present world. What was intellectual, becomes enlightenment....like when standing at the site of the initial survey point. A direct line from Thomas Jefferson .....to the now. It sounds hokey, but it kind of gives chills. Thanks Restless Viking.

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Well written!! Thanks!

@77rockcity 2 ай бұрын

Check out Chad Stemke: Stargate Detroit 😉

@chuckhill9196 2 жыл бұрын

And I thought my Michigan History classes covered it all! Nope, now I'm learning again. Thanks a lot Chuck!

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Very nice of you to say! Thanks!

@shawneechojnacki1340 2 жыл бұрын

What a great informative , educational video ! Thank you ! History matters !

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@MitchEGann 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Chuck, this was a really interesting video. Would like to have your take on the surveyors Austin Burt and John Mullet in the Northern Lower Peninsula. Two large lakes named after them up here.

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

I didn't know Burt and Mullet Lake were named after surveyors. I'll have to check it out.

@MI-Surveyor 2 жыл бұрын

Don't forget Houghton lake and the City of Houghton. Both named for Douglas Houghton, a surveyor among other things.

@MI-Surveyor 2 жыл бұрын

Burt gets credit for inventing the solar compass. This allowed more accurate surveys of the U. P. Due to large iron deposits standard magnetic compasses were not suitable.

@joes.740 2 жыл бұрын

I did not know most of that. Very interesting. The surveying of the wilderness is really an amazing story, I had read a bit about that a few years ago but Chuck's explanation was more in-depth. How the sections, townships, counties were all created & why. Funny how they found the land not worth settling. Then the Saginaw area came under government control, some of the best farmland in the world. I did know about the baseline but I did not know about the meridian. Baseline Road (renamed 8 Mile in the east), Baseline Lake (which I don't think existed back then), but now I understand how the intersection at the meridian is the starting point of the all of it. Subscribing!

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Welcome Joe! Thanks for watching and subscribing!

@jasonburge7054 2 жыл бұрын

Sweet video Chuck. If your ever heading north on 127, stop at the central park in St. Louis. There is a marker in the south west corner of the park marking the geographic center of michigan.

@tmacmi9095 9 ай бұрын

I read somewhere that 8 mile rd was the baseline, which would make it along the northern boundary of Detroit. How does this fit in?

@stephenrrose 2 жыл бұрын

And to think you and a few others taught me Land Nav. Loved the History, and how you tell it! Still teaching me new things! Love it!

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Appreciate you Brother! It was always an honor to have you in class and on the team!

@stephenrrose 2 жыл бұрын

@@RestlessViking Appreciate that more than you know! Love learning life long skills from the best!!! Stay safe out there!

@RustyorBroken 2 жыл бұрын

Roads, especially rural ones, often jog at county lines. I wonder if this is related?

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Lots of weird things with country roads. This particular weirdness seems to only affect county borders & roads north of the meridian.

@MI-Surveyor 2 жыл бұрын

Every 6 miles, a survey Township, the surveyor would run a true measure of 6 miles to correct for the error induced by measuring the previous 6 miles. Sometimes the amount is small and you won't see an appreciable jog. Sometimes it was very significant.

@thefuzzbutt 2 жыл бұрын

Another amazing job Chuck. Thank you. Weirdly this makes so many little things about our state make a bit more sense now.

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@jordankrutsch4037 2 жыл бұрын

I'm originally from Defiance. I never knew the role it had in the survey of a new territory. Thanks!

@NoizeyAcres 2 ай бұрын

Need to show the plaque on the ground what did I'd say

@TheWhiteTrashPanda Жыл бұрын

Ron Pearlman Jr...

@christopherwassink6620 2 жыл бұрын

Another great video. Again learned something about my own state that I never knew.

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! And thanks for sticking around!

@troymilks7342 2 жыл бұрын

And there's the Toledo Strip donnybrook.

@smbjcm Жыл бұрын

So are both markers open to the public?

@RestlessViking Жыл бұрын

Yes

@cherriecamilleri4022 2 жыл бұрын

Another episode of #mybrotherscoolerthanyours #heknowsthings

@RestlessViking 2 жыл бұрын

😂

@phillipgarrow2297 2 жыл бұрын

I'm from Michigan I've never heard about this in school how did they come up with the state borders we have now?

@kendallsmith1458 9 ай бұрын

The Toledo Strip War

@robertlucht4657 3 ай бұрын

You are incorrect about states not having more than on starting points. Wyoming is mostly surveyed on the 6th prime meridian. Be we also have another prime meridian, called the Wind River prime meridian. Colorado also has two prime meridians. Most of Colorado is on the 6th prime meridian, but they also have another prime meridian centered around Grand Junction. There is nothing in the legislation passed by Congress that says anything about a state only having one prime meridian. In fact, the 6th prime meridian starts in eastern Kansas. That is why our legal descriptions in Wyoming start at about T12N all the way to T50N, and R90W all the way to T125W. In fact there are parts of Wyoming that are based on any entirely different system which doesn't even conform to GLO standards.

@RestlessViking 3 ай бұрын

The video states Michigan has two "initial points" not starting points. "All of Michigan was surveyed from an initial point near its southern border. A jog in the baseline causes this to be a double Initial Point, the only one in the country. The two points are on the same north/south meridian, but are 935 feet apart." clui.org/projects/initial-points-anchors-america%E2%80%99s-grid/initial-points-0/michigan-meridian#:~:text=All%20of%20Michigan%20was%20surveyed%20from%20an,terms%2C%2014.18%20chains%E2%80%94one%20chain%20is%2066%20feet).

@PBRSUPERSTAR Жыл бұрын

I'm a Michigan native and local history fanatic and also a very successful metal detectorist. Studying old maps and spots that used to be home sites, I am very very familiar with the PLSS system. It really kind of makes me part surveyor myself. I can't imagine in a time without all the modern comforts and GPS not to mention impassible swamps how hard that had to be