Seven Ranges Terminus is a stone surveying marker near

Magnolia, Ohio Magnolia is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Carroll County, Ohio, Carroll and Stark County, Ohio, Stark counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 1,013 at the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is part of ...

that marks the completion of the first step in opening the lands northwest of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

to sale and settlement by

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

. This survey marked the first application of the rectangular plan for subdividing land.

History

With victory in the Revolutionary War, the

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granted the

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lands north of the Ohio River, south of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

, and east of the

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, called the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...

. The

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adopted the

Land Ordinance of 1785 The Land Ordinance of 1785 was adopted by the United States Congress of the Confederation on May 20, 1785. It set up a standardized system whereby settlers could purchase title to farmland in the undeveloped west. Congress at the time did not have ...

as a method for surveying, selling and settling these lands. This ordinance established a method for surveying the land into a grid of six mile square

survey township A survey township, sometimes called a Congressional township or just township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System, is a nominally-square area of land that is nominally six U.S. survey miles (about 9.66 km) on a side. E ...

s. These townships were to be arranged into vertical rows called “Ranges”. The first ranges were to be measured from a

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along the western boundary of

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. The townships in each range were measured from an east-west line called a baseline. This became the genesis of the techniques used in the Public Land Survey System. The 1785 ordinance called for the Geographer of the United States,

Thomas Hutchins Thomas Hutchins ( Monmouth County, NJ 1730 – April 18, 1789, Pittsburgh) was an American military engineer, cartographer, geographer and surveyor. In 1781, Hutchins was named Geographer of the United States. He is the only person to hold that ...

, to personally supervise the first survey.Auditor of State of Ohio - The Official Ohio Lands Book, pages=10-12
/ref> It called for Hutchins to establish a Point of Beginning on the north bank of the Ohio River where it leaves Pennsylvania. From there he was to establish a baseline seven ranges wide, (42 miles), called the “Geographer’s Line”, and then survey north-south lines each six miles to mark the edges of the ranges, and then establish the south boundary of each township. After each seven ranges had been completed, the Geographer was to return plats to the federal government for marketing and sale. Hutchins, along with prominent surveyors from ten states appointed by Congress, began surveying the Geographer's Line in 1785, but stopped after only a few miles because of troubles with

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. In 1786, with protection of troops from Fort Steuben, Hutchins resumed the survey. In September 1786, Hutchins placed a stone cadastral survey marker at the west edge of the seventh range on the Geographer's Line, a spot later to be known as the Seven Ranges Terminus. After the first surveyed seven ranges had been completed some years later, the survey tract was known as the Seven Ranges, or Old Seven Ranges.

The Survey Marker

The survey marker lies at the corner of four townships, three counties, and three survey tracts: *

Rose Township, Carroll County, Ohio Rose Township is one of the fourteen townships of Carroll County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,444, 1,168 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township. Geography Located in the western part of ...

Township 16, Range 7 of Old Seven Ranges * Sandy Township, Stark County, Ohio Township 17, Range 7 of Congress Lands North of Old Seven Ranges *

Pike Township, Stark County, Ohio Pike Township is one of the seventeen civil township, townships of Stark County, Ohio, Stark County, Ohio, United States. The United States Census, 2020, 2020 census found 3,818 people in the township, 3,069 of whom lived in the unincorporated por ...

Township 8, Range 8 of Congress Lands North of Old Seven Ranges * Sandy Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio Township 10, Range 1 of United States Military District The marker is property of the federal government, but surrounded by private property. It sits about 288 feet to the west of a public road. The

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

cadastral survey marker is six inches square in cross section with an inscribed X on top, and about a foot protrudes from the ground., Ohio Historical Society Much more is buried. The Canton Repository said August 7, 2003 that the stone leans somewhat because someone tried to dig it up some years ago, before realizing how deep it is buried. Another plausible reason for lean would be two centuries of frost heave. The Seven Ranges Terminus 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 artistic v ...

in 1976 for its association with the historic significance of Thomas Hutchins.

References

External links

Library of Congress - Land Ordinance of 1785 TextOhio History Central- Seven RangesOhio History Central- Thomas Hutchins
{{National Register of Historic Places Geography of Ohio Pre-statehood history of Ohio History of the Midwestern United States 1786 in the United States Surveying of the United States National Register of Historic Places in Carroll County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Stark County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Tuscarawas County, Ohio Historic surveying landmarks in the United States

History

The Survey Marker

See also

References

External links