Editing Mason–Dixon line (section)

==History==
[[File:Masondixonmarker.jpg|thumb|A crownstone boundary monument on the Mason–Dixon line; these markers were originally placed at every 5th mile ({{cvt|5|mi |disp=out}}) along the line, ornamented with family coats of arms facing the state they represented. The coat of arms of Maryland's founding [[Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore|Calvert]] family is shown; on the other side, are the arms of [[William Penn]], who founded the [[Province of Pennsylvania]]]]
[[File:A Plan of the West Line or Parallel of Latitude - WDL.png|thumb|"A Plan of the West Line or Parallel of Latitude" by Charles Mason, published in 1768]]
[[File:The great allegheny passage in fall view of wind turbines.jpg|thumb|The [[Mason-Dixon Trail]]]]
The line was established to end a [[Cresap's War|boundary dispute]] between the [[British colonization of the Americas|British colonies]] of Maryland and Pennsylvania/Delaware. Maryland had been granted the territory north of the [[Potomac River]] up to the 40th parallel. Pennsylvania's grant defined the colony's southern boundary as following a [[Twelve-Mile Circle|12-mile (radius) circle]] ({{cvt|12|mi |disp=out}}) counter-clockwise from the Delaware River until it hit "the beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern latitude." From there the boundary was to follow the 40th parallel due west for five degrees of longitude. But the 40th parallel does not, in fact, intersect the 12-mile circle, instead lying significantly farther north. Thus Pennsylvania's southern boundary as defined in its charter was contradictory and unclear. The most serious problem was that the Maryland claim would put [[Philadelphia]], the largest city in Pennsylvania, in Maryland.<ref name=hubbard/>

The dispute was peacefully resolved in 1767<ref>{{cite book|last=Konkle|first=Burton Alva|year=1932|title=Benjamin Chew 1722–1810: Head of the Pennsylvania judiciary system under colony and commonwealth|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|pages=63–64|jstor=j.ctv5132d8.17}}</ref> when the boundary was fixed as follows:
* Between Pennsylvania and Maryland:
** The parallel (latitude line) {{convert|15|mi|km|0}} south of the then southernmost point in Philadelphia, measured to be at about 39°43′ N and agreed upon as the Maryland–Pennsylvania line.
* Between Delaware and Maryland:
** The existing east–west transpeninsular line from the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the [[Chesapeake Bay]], as far as its midpoint from the Atlantic.
** A [[Twelve-Mile Circle|12-mile (radius) circle]] ({{convert|12|mi|km|0|abbr=on}}) around the city of New Castle, Delaware.
** A "tangent line" connecting the midpoint of the transpeninsular line to the western side of the 12-mile circle.
** A "north line" along the meridian (line of longitude) from the tangent point to the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.
** Should any land within the 12-mile circle fall west of the north line, it would remain part of Delaware. (This was indeed the case, and this border is the "arc line".)

The disputants engaged an expert British team, astronomer [[Charles Mason]] and surveyor [[Jeremiah Dixon]], to survey what became known as the Mason–Dixon line.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9573/ |title = A Plan of the West Line or Parallel of Latitude |website = [[World Digital Library]] |year = 1768 |access-date = 2013-06-30 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The men who drew the Mason–Dixon Line |url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40638673 |access-date = 2 September 2017 |work=BBC |date=2 September 2017 }}</ref> It cost the Calverts of Maryland and the Penns of Pennsylvania £3,512 [[shilling|9/]] [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|–]] ({{Inflation|UK|3512.45|1767|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=0}}) to have {{convert|244|mi|km|0}} surveyed with such accuracy. To them the money was well spent, for in a new country there was no other way of establishing ownership.<ref>{{Cite book
   |last=Linklater
   |first=Andro
   |title=Measuring America
   |publisher=Penguin
   |date=2003
   |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780452284593/page/33 33]
   |isbn=978-0452284593
   |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780452284593/page/33
   }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
   |url= http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1964/2/1964_2_22.shtml
   |title= Mason & Dixon: their Line and its Legend
   |last1= Mason
   |first1= A. Hughlett
   |last2= Swindler
   |first2= William F.
   |journal= American Heritage
   |date= February 1964
   |volume= 15
   |issue= 2
   |access-date= 2008-11-08
   |archive-date= December 5, 2008
   |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081205010941/http://americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1964/2/1964_2_22.shtml
   |url-status= dead
   }}</ref>
The [[Mason-Dixon Trail]] stretches on or near Pennsylvania's border with Delaware and Maryland and is a popular attraction to tourists.

The Mason–Dixon line is made up of four segments corresponding to the terms of the settlement:
* the tangent line
* the north line
* the arc line
* the 39°43′ N parallel

The most difficult task was fixing the tangent line, as they had to confirm the accuracy of the transpeninsular line midpoint and the 12-mile circle, determine the tangent point along the circle, and then actually survey and monument the border. They then surveyed the north and arc lines. They did this work between 1763 and 1767. This actually left a small [[Wedge (border)|wedge of land]] in dispute between Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Annual Report of the Director | journal = U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey | year = 1895 | page = 195 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JgEPAQAAIAAJ | access-date = 2012-12-20 | author = U.S. Coast And Geodetic Survey }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2012}}

In April 1765, Mason and Dixon began their survey of the more famous Maryland–Pennsylvania line. They were commissioned to run it for a distance of five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware River, fixing the western boundary of Pennsylvania (see the entry for [[Yohogania County]]). However, in October 1767, at [[Dunkard Creek]] near [[Mount Morris, Pennsylvania]], nearly {{convert|244|mi|km|0}} west of the Delaware, their [[Iroquois]] guides refused to go any further, having reached the border of their lands with the [[Lenape]], with whom they were engaged in hostilities. As a result, the group was forced to quit, and on October 11, they [[Mason and Dixon Survey Terminal Point|made their final observations]], {{convert|233|mi|km}} from their starting point.<ref>{{cite book | title= Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America |first= Edwin |last=Danson |publisher= John Wiley and Sons |year=2001 |pages=178–179 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dLDLuQ-xn34C&pg=PA178 |isbn = 978-0471437048 }}</ref>

In 1784, surveyors [[David Rittenhouse]] and [[Andrew Ellicott]] and their crew completed the survey of the Mason–Dixon line to the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, five degrees from the Delaware River.{{NoteTag|Four surveyors were appointed by each of the states: Virginia appointed [[James Madison (bishop)|Dr. James Madison]], Robert Andrews, [[John Page (Virginia politician)|John Page]], and [[Andrew Ellicott]], Pennsylvania appointed Dr. John Ewing (provost of University of Penn.), [[John Lukens]] (surveyor general of Penn.), [[Thomas Hutchins]], and [[David Rittenhouse]]. Andrews and Ellicott completed the west end of the line for Virginia,<ref>{{cite book |last = Mathews |first = Catherine [[Van Cortlandt family|Van Courtlandt]] |title = Andrew Ellicott, His Life and Letters |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rpMNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17 |year=1908 |publisher=The Grafton Press |location=New York |pages=17–19 |isbn = 978-0795015106 }}</ref> while Hutchins and Ewing did so for Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hicks |first=Fredrick |editor-first=Fredrick |editor-last=Hicks |title=A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina, reprinted from the original edition of 1778 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=irTRAAAAMAAJ |year=1904 |publisher=The Burrow Brothers Company |location=Cleveland |page=32 |chapter=Biographical Sketch of Thomas Hutchins}}</ref>}} Other surveyors continued west to the Ohio River. The section of the line between the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania and the river is the county line between [[Marshall County, West Virginia|Marshall]] and [[Wetzel County, West Virginia|Wetzel]] counties, West Virginia.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/mason-dixon-line/ |title = Mason–Dixon Line |date = 2014 |access-date = 2019-10-26 |website = The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia |publisher = Rutgers University |last = Strang |first = Cameron }}</ref>

As the 20th century moved along and modern roadways came to northeastern Maryland and Delaware, the old boundary line was noted by construction crews, newspaper columnists, and the traveling public. When contractors started working on a section of Route 40, a modern dual highway between Elkton and Glasgow, they discovered a time and weather battered original Mason Dixon Marker. It was relocated to northside of the highway and when the governors of Delaware and Maryland dedicated the highway on June 26, 1941, newspaper reporters took note of the ancient old relic.<ref name="A Fallen Mason Dixon Monument">{{Cite web |date=2019-12-22 |title=A Fallen Mason Dixon Monument |url=https://cecilcountyhistory.com/mason-dixon-monument/ |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=Window on Cecil County's Past |language=en-US}}</ref>

Although greatly mangled by traffic in the second half of the twentieth century, it still stands today. But long before bulldozers and other heavy equipment started moving earth for the dual highway before World War II, there were concerns about the preservation of this monument. In 1885, the Cecil Democrat reported that after 119-years, the stone on the road from Elkton to Glasgow had "yielded to the action of the elements and fell over." The editor urged the Cecil County Commissioners, Commissioner of the Land Office, Governor or some public minded citizen to preserve this "old time-honored, moss-covered relic of a generation, which has passed away. . . "<ref name="A Fallen Mason Dixon Monument"/>

On November 14, 1963, during the bicentennial of the Mason–Dixon line, U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]] opened a newly completed section of [[Interstate 95]] where it crossed the Maryland–Delaware border. After the president, flanked by the governors of Delaware and Maryland, cut a ribbon opening the Interstate, they moved to the grassy median strip where a replica Mason and Dixon Marker had been placed for the bicentennial. There President Kennedy and the governors unveiled a limestone replica.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-11-17 |title=President Kennedy Unveiled Mason Dixon Marker |url=https://cecilcountyhistory.com/president-kennedy-at-the-mason-dixon-line/ |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=Window on Cecil County's Past |language=en-US}}</ref> It was one of his last public appearances before his [[John F. Kennedy assassination|assassination]] in [[Dallas, Texas]]. The [[Delaware Turnpike]] and the [[John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway (Maryland)|Maryland portion]] of the new road were later designated as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway.

The Mason–Dixon line has been resurveyed three times: in 1849, 1900, and in the 1960s.<ref name="WDL" />

In 2020, 30 volunteers, at the behest of the [[Maryland Department of Natural Resources|Maryland Geological Survey]], started a project to locate and document the 226 remaining Mason-Dixon Line stones, which were placed every mile in the 18th century to mark the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. The stones are historically significant because they represent one of the first [[Geodesy|geodetic]] surveys ever conducted in North America. The volunteers hope to get the stones listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which will help to preserve them for future generations. By 2023, the volunteers found 218 of the often-hidden 500-pound limestone stone markers quarried in England.<ref>{{cite news |last=Simpson |first=Ashley |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a45836176/mason-dixon-line-volunteers/ |title=Volunteers are Racing to Save the Crumbling Mason-Dixon Line |work=[[Popular Mechanics]] |date=2024-01-02 |accessdate=2024-01-03 }}</ref>