Meades Ranch, Kansas
Meades Ranch is a location in Kansas, United States that was designated as the geodetic base point for the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD 27). It was chosen in 1901 because it was a triangulation station at the junction of the trancontinental triangulation arc of 1899 on the 39th parallel north and the triangulation arc along the 85th meridian west that was near the geographic center of the contiguous United States and whose astronomic and geodetic coordinates agreed.[1]
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Location [edit]
It is located at 39°13′26.71218″N 98°32′31.74604″W / 39.2240867167°N 98.5421516778°WCoordinates: 39°13′26.71218″N 98°32′31.74604″W / 39.2240867167°N 98.5421516778°W or 39°13′26.71218″N 98°32′31.74604″W / 39.2240867167°N 98.5421516778°W (in NAD83),[2] 12 miles (19 km) north of Lucas, Kansas, 20 miles (32 km) south of Downs, Kansas, and 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Tipton, Kansas. A roadside marker describing Meades Ranch is located 17 miles (27 km) north-northwest of Meades Ranch in a park just east of the junction of U.S. Route 24 and U.S. Route 281 in northeastern Osborne, Kansas.[3] Meades Ranch is about 40 miles (64 km) south of the geographic center of the forty-eight contiguous U.S. states which is near Lebanon, Kansas.
Reference ellipsoid [edit]
Meades Ranch was the reference point for almost all land survey measurements in the United States from 1927 until the establishment of the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) and the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84). NAD 27 was based on the Clarke ellipsoid of 1866. A reference ellipsoid is an attempt to closely describe mathematically the actual shape of the earth — the geoid. Calculations for map projections are performed using the parameters of the ellipsoid. The geoid, being irregular, is impossible to precisely model mathematically. For the purpose of the NAD 27, the geoidal height [i.e. geoid separation] at Meades Ranch was assumed to be zero so that the geoid (mean sea level) and the ellipsoid intersect at that location.[4]
In popular culture [edit]
This geodetic center is featured in the 2006 documentary film Manhattan, Kansas[5] by Tara Wray, which is about her reconciliation with her mentally unstable mother Evie Wray. Evie is shown searching for the Geodetic Center, the finding of which she says will bring about world peace.[6][7]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Walter H. Schoewe, "Kansas and the geodetic datum of North America", Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 51 (1948) 117–124, www.jstor.org
- ^ Meades Ranch Reset, NGS Data Sheet
- ^ Roadside marker in Osbourne, Kansas
- ^ Frequently Asked Questions about the National Geodetic Survey
- ^ Manhattan, Kansas at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Manhattan, Kansas review by the chutry experiment
- ^ Documentary Educational resources
