Geodetic Center of the Lower 48 United States of America
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| Forty-two miles south of the "Official Geographic Center" of the Lower 48 United States is this monument, which references the "Geodetic Center." This sign makes no claims at being the geodetic center itself, rather it indicates that the actual geodetic center lies on private property eight miles away, in the fields of Meads Ranch, where it is marked with a small bronze geodetic survey marker. The little bronze plaque at that site marks the exact North American Datum, a fixed point from which a sixth of the world's land surface was surveyed. This triangulation station was selected to be the Datum in 1901 by the Coast and Geodectic Survey, the primary map makers in America at the time. In 1913, it was adopted as the datum for Canada and Mexico's surveys as well. The significance of this site to the cartographers and surveyors of the early 1900's is tremendous, though since survey lines are the basis of square mile sections, townships, ranges, and other latitudinal and longitudinal formations, this site could be said to be the "point of origin" for much of the grid of American development. |
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138 miles NW of Wichita, near Osborne
(POINT(-98.693447113037 39.452365839394))
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Osborne County |
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| The sign for the monument is located at a small road side rest on Highway 281, near Osborne. Though there is a replica of the survey marker at the base of the sign, the survey marker at the exact geodetic center is in an active cornfield 8 miles south of the sign. |
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http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/
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Cultural, Monument
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