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Meridian-Baseline State Park facts for kids

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Meridian-Baseline State Park
IUCN Category III (Natural Monument)
Meridian Baseline State Park.jpg
The West meridian baseline marker
Meridian-Baseline State Park is located in Michigan
Meridian-Baseline State Park
Meridian-Baseline State Park
Location in Michigan
Location Ingham and Jackson counties, Michigan
Nearest city Leslie, Michigan
Area 108 acres (44 ha)
Elevation 924 feet (282 m)
Designation Michigan state park
Established 1967
Administrator Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Website Meridian-Baseline State Park

Meridian-Baseline State Park is a historic preservation area covering 108 acres (44 ha) in Ingham County and Jackson County, Michigan, containing the intersection of the Michigan meridian and the baseline used for the Michigan Survey. The state park has two monuments that show where the two mismatched baselines meet the principal meridian at the North Initial Point and South Initial Point.

History

Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park West Baseline Marker
The West Baseline-Meridian marker at Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park.
Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park East Baseline Marker
The East Baseline-Meridian marker at Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park.

Efforts to acquire the site were initiated by state and private interests in the 1960s. In the 1960s and 1970s, land was acquired and money was raised toward establishing a Museum of Surveying on the site. Those efforts were abandoned when the Michigan Society of Professional Surveyors opened a museum in Lansing, Michigan, in 1981.

Although the site was landlocked for many years, in 2014, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources acquired additional property allowing public access from Meridian Road near the Jackson-Ingham county line. Improvements made at the site included trail clearing and construction of a 10-car parking lot. After road signs, trail markers, and a bridge over the creek were added, the State of Michigan in conjunction with Ingham and Jackson counties, opened the new access to the park on October 12, 2015. In 2016, an additional boardwalk was completed in the wetlands near the markers.


Images for kids

  • Michigan Eastern Baseline Initial Point Marker

    The East Baseline-Meridian marker, situated in a swap at the end of a boardwalk. It is the northern of the two markers.

  • Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park West Baseline Marker

    The West Baseline-Meridian marker at Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park

  • Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park East Baseline Marker

    The East Baseline-Meridian marker at Michigan Meridian-Baseline State Park

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