This BLM map depicts the principal meridians and baselines used in the survey of the United States.

In surveying, a baseline is generally a line between two points on the earth's surface and the direction and distance between them. In a triangulation network, at least one baseline between two stations needs to be measured to calculate the size of the triangles by trigonometry.

In the United States Public Land Survey System, a baseline is specifically the principal east-west line (i.e., a parallel) upon which all rectangular surveys in a defined area are based. The baseline meets its corresponding principal meridian (north-south line) at the point of origin, or initial point, for the land survey. For example, the baseline for Nebraska and Kansas is shared as the border for both states, at the 40th parallel north.

More specifically a baseline may be the line that divides a survey township between north and south.

"Baseline Road" in the United States

Many communities in the United States have roads that run along survey baselines, many of which are named to reflect that fact. Some examples:

Canada

In Canadian land surveying, a base line is one of the many principal east-west lines that correspond to four tiers of townships (two tiers north and two south). The base lines are about 24 miles (39 km) apart, with the first base line at the 49th parallel, the western Canada–US border. It is, therefore equivalent to the standard parallel in the US system.

Ontario

In Ontario, a baseline forms a straight line parallel a geographical feature (mostly a lake, especially Lake Ontario or Lake Erie) that serves as a reference line for surveying a grid of property lots. The result of this surveying is the concession road and sideline system in use today.

Many prominent Ontario baselines lie on the surveyed boundaries of land treaties signed with First Nations peoples. For example, several baselines in Waterloo Region and Brant County (including Wilmot Line, Brant-Oxford Road, and Indian Line) follow the borders of the Haldimant Tract land grant to the Six Nations confederacy,[1] leading to the patchwork road and lot network, surveyed parallel to the western edge of the tract, which can be seen in this area to this day. Jones Baseline which runs through Wellington County and Halton Region follows the original survey route marked by Augustus Jones after the Between the Lakes Purchase in 1792.[2]

See also

References

  1. "Haldimand Tract". Grand River Country. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  2. Stephen Thorning (1 Feb 1995). "Augustus Jones determined present-day county boundaries". Wellington Advertiser. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
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