Initial Point, on the boundary of Garvin County, Oklahoma and

Murray County, Oklahoma Murray County is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 13,488. This is a 6.9 percent increase from 12,623 at the 2000 census. The county seat is Sulphur. The county was ...

, about west of Davis, Oklahoma, is a historic surveying

initial point In surveying, an initial point is a datum (a specific point on the surface of the earth) that marks the beginning point for a cadastral survey. The initial point establishes a local geographic coordinate system for the surveys that refer to that p ...

which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1970. It includes one contributing object, a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

marker monument approximately 54x18x18 in dimension. It was set "in a mound of stones six feet in diameter and three feet high, from which flagstaff at Fort Arbuckle bears north seven degrees, thirty-seven minutes west." With Initial Point, or the "Point of Beginning," was established by

General Land Office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department ...

surveyors in 1870. From this point all land in

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

and

Oklahoma Territory The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as ...

, and later the State of Oklahoma except for its Panhandle, was surveyed and described. It is considered one of the notable

initial points In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...

in the United States. At the time of its establishment, Initial Point was located in Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation.Charles Goins, ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), plate 105.

References

Initial points National Register of Historic Places in Garvin County, Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places in Murray County, Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-NRHP-stub