The City of Southfield took part in reenacting a historical survey on July 18, 2014. A survey that took place in 1815 started at what is now 8 Mile and Rutland and proceeded across the country to Oregon. It was the first survey of its kind.
The City of Southfield plans to build a plaza and an obelisk to commemorate the site. For now, the planning office is accepting donations as they do not intend to use any city funds for the project.
SOUTHFIELD — If you flew from Detroit to Portland, Oregon, Tuesday morning, it could cost anywhere from $383-$588, according to orbitz.com.
And if you drove the 2,389 miles from Detroit to Portland, it would take 34 hours, make that 35 in traffic that was current as of Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.
But either way, if you chose to go, you would have to start somewhere. That place might just be from Eight Mile Road and Rutland in Southfield, where Tuesday morning officials from Hubbell, Roth and Clark and the city of Southfield re-enacted the historic survey along Eight Mile that became the start of modern surveying methods back in 1815.
The re-enactment “is a symbol of the (beginning) of property description by law,” said David Barr, who designed the obelisk that will mark the Baseline (Eight Mile) in Southfield. “It is not a trivial thing.”
The Coasting the Baseline Project is a series of 10-foot tall obelisks, which mark the baseline survey in the settlement of Michigan. That baseline stretches from coast to coast in Michigan and, for that matter, all the way to Oregon.
“The location of your house is determined by this grid along Eight Mile that goes all the way to Oregon,” Barr said.
Councilman Ken Siver said that the history of the new survey method in 1815 is attributable to Thomas Jefferson, who said that a mathematical method was needed to define property boundaries instead of the “meets and bounds” method.
Barr also hoped that the project would renew interest in American about the role that surveyors played in the early history of the country.
Plaza comingSiver, a prime mover for the Baseline Project in Southfield, said that a plaza that will be developed on the site will become a place of families to go and read the historical items that will be etched on the obelisk’s plaques, recounting the history of the area.
The plaza will feature park benches and landscaping making the area “more inviting than it is right now,” said Councilman Jeremy Moss.
Also on hand for the ceremony was George (Jed) Hubbell, of Hubbell Roth and Clark, the city’s engineering firm. Adding to the significance of the event for HRC, he said, is that the initial survey was done in 1815 and his firm was founded in 1915 and will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.
Helping to survey the point where the obelisk will be located in Southfield was city planner Terry Croad, who donned period clothing for the event, as did Scott Roth and Bill Wonnacutt, both from HRC.
Barr explained that surveying was done largely in “the dead of winter” so surveyors could cross over water. That caused problems for surveyors, however, because they used metal chains and metal contracts in cold weather.
“By the time they reached Lake Michigan, they would be off by half a mile,” he said.
To compensate for that, the chains used to measure lengths were repeatedly heated.
Hometown Life: http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20140720/NEWS20/307200073/Southfield-re-enacts-historic-survey-area
