Posted on 03/19/2006 9:24:27 AM PST by SamAdams76
Ok, this is driving me nuts and I can't find this in Google searches.
During the past week, I took a plane trip to the west coast and back and had window seats both times. I notice that most of "fly-over country" features a grid of near-perfect squares from approx. the Mississipi River to the Rocky Mountains.
Apparently these are all roads that are in a criss-cross pattern, intersecting perfectly to create these squares. On most of these squares you can see a single farmhouse with some additional buildings that might be barns, chicken houses, silos, etc.
Was this by design or by accident?
You really notice these over states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, etc. Just an endless parade of perfect squares.
Of course, when you get back east of the Mississipi, the landscape becomes mostly woodlands and irregular winding roads as opposed to perfectly straight roads.
Can anybody here explain?
"When you fly over the Indiana/Ohio state lines you can see where the surveys don't quite match up."
"They missed by thaaat much, Eighty-Six."
LOL! :)
If you have a 5 X 5 mile square meet up with a 6 X 6 mile square, they can match perfectly only every 30 miles.
I didn't know that. Thank you.
McVey
When the growth is gradual, the quarter section lines (half mile by half mile) may even be included. Midwesterners prize order.
Some of the posters have alluded to the well-planned cities in the west which follow the same grid pattern. Salt Lake City is perhaps the best example. The Mormon leader Brigham Young who planned the city basically transplanted the idea from the midwest. In the early 1840's, the key city in the Mormon faith was Nauvoo, Illinois. It may have even rivaled Chicago in size in that era. Both Young and the church founder Joseph Smith were natives of New England who disliked the haphazard method of street layout prevalent there.
While Nauvoo had the standard grid pattern, Salt Lake added the improvements of wider streets (the standard being enough space to turn around a wagon team easily) and standard naming. I beleive most of the Mormon founded settlements have a Main Street running east and west and a Center Street running north and south (it may be the other way around. Mormon Freepers should feel free to correct me). Each street north of Main is 1st North, 2nd North, etc. Each street south of Main is 1st South, 2nd South, etc. The same system follows with Center Street. The first street east of center is 1st East, the 1st street west is 1st west. Any address such as 650 W. 1st North can be determined to be exactly 1 block north and 6.5 blocks west of the junction of Main & Center-- in just about any town.
Streets with names which do not follow the system were either made in new developments or in towns which weren't necessarily founded by Mormons. I believe Ogden, Utah, for instance, is somewhat of a hodgepodge as it was originally a railroad town in which the Mormons tried to introduce their system somewhat later.
What is really cool about this new technology is the overlay capacity.
Yield is measured by coordinate at harvest time. A particular area of the field may be deficient in nutrient. As that portion is picked, the onboard GPS and computer track what is ending up in the hopper. Then, that data is used to proportion how much fertilizer is applied to that particular area the next season. Don't understand it all, but have a good friend who works for one of the ag equipment suppliers who has developed this technology.
Texas is on the "metes and bounds" system, not township and range.
We were exempted from the Northwest Territories Act of 1787, when Texas entered the Union in 1845, because it had already been substantially surveyed for Spanish land grants and other settlement.
Irrigation.
Dry areas use circular fields because you can sink and artesian well in the center, and have a boom with sprayers that rotates slowly around the
central feed.
I'm not sure whether they plow in a circular pattern, or in rows approximating the irrigated circle.
Yeah, it's nice to know you can't really get lost when out driving in the country in Oklahoma. You always know there will be a road up ahead within the section.
I honestly thought the jogs in the roads were because of the different land runs.
You know that Indian Meridian Rd. in OKC runs along the Indian Meridian for Oklahoma (and several states north)? It is about 97.14W. The Initial Point in Oklahoma is down near Davis, OK. The Indian Baseline is about 34.30N. All the township and range measurements radiate from that. And it's not even aligned on the latitudes and longitudes that run through the state, which I thought *forever* that it was.
It's called the "Desert"
Ever try drawing a fractal from ground level??
It's been awhile since I took a plane trip.
Thanks for the view.
Very interesting! I didn't know that.
Same here. It was my granddaughter. My son gets a free trip to Mexico every year, so he took his sister and niece (my granddaughter) along to Cabos this time. She came back with some gorgeous photos; they had a good time, but it is extremely expensive down there. She got a shell purse with some money my son won and it was like $175. When they went to play golf, she had on a tank top, she wears modest ones if any can be considered modest, maybe this one showed some skin at the waist. That violated the dress code, so my son had to buy her a shirt for $150. Bikinis on the beach but no tank tops on the golf course. Maybe it is a way to rip off tourists; I don't see anything wrong with it.
I haven't flown for years either.
Thanks for the view.
You're most welcome. I asked my granddaughter if she cared if I posted it. I'll pass the word along. The photo was almost unsalvageable as shot because of the glass window and no polarizer (which may have been useless anyway). I tried to fix it as best I could.
When I was a kid much more of Nebraska was still range/pasture/hay land.
But, the rise of center-pivot irrigation has been overwhelming. These days it's practically a cornfield clear to the Rockies.
Why?
Because, though it was once erroneously known as 'the Great American Desert' there is a fresh-water ocean under the Cornhusker State. It's called the Ogallala Aquifer .
It's huge, and runs clear to Texas.
heh...it's way underground...don't think you need to worry. ;-)
The county roads were plotted to follow section lines.
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