It is kind of a relief to not start out on the fantail of an ancient Dreadnaught, preparing to be irradiated by scientists who did not appreciate the magnitude of the forces with which they were playing.
That said, it was a grand ride and now here we are again in the Present, with all its warts. I am not sure I want to get all hung up on those, and the specter of the Endless Campaign that will occupy the media for most of the year to come is just depressing.
So we are going to have to find some topics that are uplifting, or at least not so relentlessly partisan as to make on crazy. I do not find either of the mainline parties to have much in common with my views on things, and I think I am going to just let them go their own ways and ignore them until November.
That said, there are plenty of projects to which I can apply myself.
First off, I want to finish the saga of the Stones of the District. This has been an epic story, hundreds of years in the making. My part is much shorter, of course.
As I am sure you are aware, the Residence Act of July 16, 1790, as amended March 3, 1791, authorized President George Washington to select a 100-square-mile site for the prospective national capital on the Potomac River. It would be located between Alexandria, Virginia, and Williamsport, Maryland. George selected the southernmost location within these limits, so that the capital would include all of present-day Old Town Alexandria (then one of the four busiest ports in the country).
Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State at the time, and he selected Major Andrew Ellicott to conduct began initial observations for a rough survey of the ten-mile square on Friday, February 11, 1791.
Ellicott hired Benjamin Banneker, an astronomer and mathematician from Maryland (and a freedman), to make the astronomical observations and calculations necessary to establish the south corner of the square at Jones Point in Alexandria. The team completed this rough survey in April 1791.
On April 15, 1791, the Alexandria Masonic Lodge (Washington was a member in good standing) placed a small stone at the south corner at Jones Point. That was replaced in 1794 with a larger stone, inscribed with the words: “The beginning of the Territory of Columbia” on one side.
Ellicott’s team began the formal survey by clearing twenty feet of land on both sides of each boundary line and placing other stones, made of sandstone hewn from Aquia Creek, at one-mile intervals. On each stone, the side facing the District of Columbia displayed the inscription “Jurisdiction of the United States” and a mile number. The opposite side said either “Virginia” or “Maryland,” as appropriate. The third and fourth sides displayed the year in which the stone was placed (1791 for the 14 Virginia stones and 1792 for the 26 Maryland stones) and the magnetic compass variance at that place. Stones along the northwest Maryland boundary also displayed the number of miles they fell from NW4, the first stone placed in Maryland. Stones placed at intervals of more than a mile included that extra distance measured in poles.
The boundary stones are the oldest federal monuments. No kidding- the first public works of the new Republic are still there. Thought some have been moved or severely damaged, thirty-six stones from the 1790s and one substitute stone are in or near their original locations, including all fourteen in the land that was returned to Virginia in the 1846-1847 retrocession. Two are in storage and another has vanished, to be replaced by a plaque in front of a liquor store.
I first brought this all up with you more than a decade ago. My pal Argo has joined me on several of the expeditions to find particularly challenging Stones- some are in places that are either on restricted Federal land- like the Decarlia Reservoir- or places you could get jumped. One is in the DC Impound Lot in the wilds of SE- and trust me, you have not seen how wild an urban area can be.
The last one remaining to be visited is SE-9, and that one is going to take some doing to get at. We have made assaults on it from land and sea and it has vanquished it. I sense though, as my time in Washington ticks off, it is time to get on it.
And that will be a story in and of itself. More on that tomorrow.
Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303