Geodetic Center of North America

The bronze in that pasture reads Meades Ranch 1891, the year the Coast and Geodetic Survey set it near the crossing of two transcontinental arcs of triangulation; 1901 is when it became the origin of the national datum. Canada and Mexico adopted it in 1913 as the North American Datum, and its 1901 coordinates carried into NAD 27. The plaque's present tense has lapsed: NAD 83, adopted by the United States in 1989, replaced the old spheroid with an ellipsoid centered on the earth's mass, and Meades Ranch lost its special standing. The station is on private land.

What the plaque says

Geodetic Center of North America On a ranch 18 miles southeast of this marker a bronze plate marks the most important spot on this continent to surveyors and map makers. Engraved in the bronze is a cross-mark and on the tiny point where the lines cross depend the surveys of a sixth of the world's surface. This is the Geodetic Center of the United States, the "Primary Station" for all North American surveys. It was located in 1901 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Later Canada and Mexico adopted the point and its supporting system as the base for their surveys and it is now known as the "North American Datum." What Greenwich is to the longitude of the world, there- fore, a Kansas pasture is to the lines and boundaries of this continent. It must not be confused with the Geographic Center of the United States, which is 42 miles north, in Smith County. Erected by Kansas Historical Society and State Highway Commission This bronze disc is a replica of the actual marker for the Geodetic Center of North America, located south of Osborne placed by the Osborne Area Chamber of Commerce

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Waconda Springs — 17 mi
• The Geographic Center — 24 mi