Nearly 180 years after U.S. Deputy Surveyor Eleazer P. Kendrick placed mile post monuments on the Indiana-Michigan border, surveyors from both states are busily searching for the historic mile posts.

Their investigations have taken them across hilly grasslands and into woodlands, marshes, swamps, streams and lakes — much as Kendrick experienced in October 1827 when he moved east from the Lake Michigan shoreline to set 105 mile posts in about 22 days, completing his task at the northeast corner of Indiana.

Driving the current project is a growing demand from surveyors who are encountering problems in properly defining the state line for the developers and landowners who are their clients.

Surveyors have shown a great interest in recovering and preserving the mile posts, to avoid surrendering control of the effort to state legislatures and their committees or federal authorities who aren’t as knowledgeable of local records.

"As long as local surveyors can recover existing evidence of the original mile posts, we can preserve them," said Norman Caldwell, of Owosso, Mich., recording secretary of the Indiana-Michigan State Line Committee.

Problems in Defining the Line
The problem of properly defining the state line’s location developed soon after Kendrick completed his survey, when rectangular Public Land Survey Systems of Michigan and Indiana were extended to a "closure" on the Kendrick line.

As the original subdividing surveyors came to wooded areas where there were blazed trees or other marking of the Kendrick survey, they would report they had intersected the state line, and set a closing corner. In the open prairie lands, the line would not have been as clearly visible.

The subdividing U.S. deputy surveyors were not required to retrace the Kendrick line to confirm the state line’s position. As a result, over the ensuing years, more and more closing corners were used as terminations of the rectangular survey lines coming in from both states, producing errors of unknown but normally small dimension.

Kendrick’s survey showed little of the "wiggles and wobbles" to be found in magnetic compass lines elsewhere. He did wander from the parallel of latitude that is mapped as North 41 degrees, 47 minutes, 43 seconds, but appears to be better than other east-west compass lines of the time period.

An act from 1827
The original survey was authorized by Congress on March 2, 1827, "to ascertain and designate the Northern Boundary of the state of Indiana."

October probably proved to be the best time for the survey, Caldwell said. "Early in the spring, it would have been too wet. Later in the fall, there would have been snow."

It wouldn’t have been an easy job, though. They were working in a wilderness, filled with rivers and large lakes — and mosquitoes, disease and snakes.

"In the 1820s, civilization had not reached that area," Caldwell said. "Farmers hadn’t cleared the land, and their hogs hadn’t cleared the area of rattlesnakes."

Nevertheless, the crew’s work — especially that of the chainmen — is consistent and impressive. Caldwell said the overall length of the line of record is 104.619 miles, and measured by GPS it is 104.276 miles, a difference of 1,811 feet. That calculates to a shortage of about 17.5 feet per mile, anticipating that the shoreline of Lake Michigan is still in the relatively same location.

A committee report in 2005 includes the comment, "Damn, Kendrick’s chainmen were GOOD!"

Framework for committee
The Kendrick 1827 survey map and field notes provided the framework for the committee, which first met in October 2004. It elected Jack Owens, a retired surveyor from Flint, Mich., as general chairman, "in recognition of his research capabilities and project interest." John McNamara, of South Bend, Ind., was selected to represent Indiana surveyors, and Wayne Mostrom, of Centreville, Mich., was picked as Michigan County Surveyor representative.

In true "committee organization" form, Caldwell, who was observed taking notes, was "immediately and unanimously railroaded into being secretary," he reported.

There are currently 29 professional surveyors representing Indiana and Michigan on the committee mailing list.

By September 2005, the committee had decided to focus on recovering and preserving 13 specific mile posts, at locations ranging from Mile 2 to 105 miles. (Mile post 105 was set by Kendrick when he overran the extension of the Ohio-Indiana line.)

Best remaining evidence
These select mile markers were moved to the top of the research list because they were in woodlands, marshes or swamps where soils and evidence were most likely to have remained undisturbed or not plowed out by farmers or in terrain reshaped by bulldozers.

"Some segments — ’way on the west end — are probably about the same now as they were (for Kendrick’s survey)," Caldwell said. "After crossing the freeway, there are six or seven miles of very rough country that’s swampy and wet. It’s probably quite close to what they had to deal with."

Some of the best evidence, he said, was provided by county surveyors in the mid- to late-1800s. "We are fortunate to have had county surveyors who kept good records that continue to be in existence," Caldwell said.

Five mile posts found
To date, the committee feels it has located five proven mile posts, with the northeast corner of Indiana showing significant potential for recovery.

Monuments from an 1871 section subdivision survey by George Mark,

Hillsdale (Mich.) county surveyor, are currently being recovered and are expected to verify the location of the northeast corner of Indiana at Mile 104-plus.

The best-preserved monument recovered to date is at mile 52, where Tom Stephenson, of Cassopolis, Mich., has recovered an original mile post while verifying a closing corner position in January 2004. The wood post had a pointed bottom tip and was recovered in knee-deep water in a swamp. Stephenson told committee members he preserved the position with a three-quarter-inch pipe that was six feet long.

Several other mile posts in the "maybe" category haven’t been verified, and several stone markers appear to be perpetuations installed by local surveyors when the original posts were badly deteriorated. Committee members and local surveyors are still searching for records.

County surveyors in Indiana and Michigan have included closing corners and adjoining monuments in their ongoing statewide remonumentation efforts.

Challenges ahead
The committee anticipates that the recovery of additional survey monuments, along and adjacent to the line, will assist in closely defining the search area for an original mile post. As these search areas are determined, professional surveyors representing the two states will take part in a recovery effort.

Nothing comes easy, though. October’s meeting was to include a small group search for the monument at Indiana’s northeast corner, but it was delayed because access to the area is through a soybean field. "As soon as the harvest is finished, we will get the northeast corner researched and explored in greater detail," Caldwell said.

The group also expects to receive microfilm records relating to a geodetic control station in the area.

"As people turn in new points, (the published 2005 committee report) becomes a living document," Caldwell said. There is currently a great deal of local effort, and the committee expects there will be a steady flow of what’s recorded, searched for, found and authenticated for the next several years.

"It’s a tremendous undertaking," Caldwell said.

At some point in time, when there’s no more evidence of existent or obliterated mile posts to be added, the committee expects to turn over all that’s been recovered, monumented and documented to an appropriate agency.

Looking to the future
As has been noted, local professional surveyors can only recover and monument "original" existent or obliterated evidence. Miles posts that are "lost" can only be replaced by joint action of the Indiana and Michigan legislatures — or, as an alternative, by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the meantime, as local surveyors encounter problems and ask for help in getting a situation resolved, the committee is offering guidance, especially to those who are not familiar with junior and senior issues. (The Kendrick line, having been the first line established, is a senior line. Closing corners established by the subsequent rectangular surveys of Indiana and Michigan are "junior lines" and must be subservient to the senior positions.)

Committee members are also enjoying the ongoing detective work.

"This is what our profession is all about . . . finding, locating, preserving and authenticating monuments," Caldwell said. "Surveyors love finding original markers in their daily activities."

— By Mike Davis, Indianapolis