Side A: After the War of 1812, the United States Congress proposed two million acres of military bounty land for the Michigan Territory. To survey the land, the meridian had to first be established. U.S. Surveyor General Edward Tiffin created the meridian based on the western line of the Treaty of Detroit (1807). He contracted with Deputy Surveyor Benjamin Hough in April 1815 to begin the survey for $3 per mile. Taking a reading from Polaris (the North Star), Hough, Alexander Holmes, and 11 crew members surveyed the line due north from Fort Defiance. The difficult terrain they encountered temporarily halted all surveys in the territory and ultimately led to the bounty land being transferred to the Illinois and Missouri Territories.
Side B: Between July 12 and October 26, 1915, Samuel Stinson Gannet, Geographer of the United States Geological Survey and crew retraced and surveyed the Ohio and Michigan State Line. Working with a transit and dragging a 300 foot steel tape, the crew surveyed 69.92 miles and set 72 granite monuments. The 700-pound monuments are 5 feet 6 inches tall and cost $18.00 each, including delivery from Mount Airy, North Carolina. The top 18 inches were cut and carved by Lloyd Brothers in Toledo. Once the survey was complete, it put an end to one of the greatest disputes over a state line in the history of the United States.
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