Finding the Tripoint

Coming home from the stars and landing firmly on the Earth:

In the woods on a lofty ridgetop, near the peak where Appalachian waters are made to choose whether to tumble east or west, a geographic point etched in history lies at the base of a 20th century stone.

Image from Facebook that shows the location of the Tripoint. Text accompanying the photo on social media is wildly incorrect.

Maybe you've seen it pictured recently in an image posted to Facebook and other social media platforms. The photo itself is accurate; the location described in accompanying texts is not.

In truth, this is the point where Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia meet. It is the intersection of the historic Mason-Dixon Line (Pennsylvania's southern border for the most part) and the Deakins Line (the West Virginia-Maryland border after 1912).

This stone sits outside of Markleysburg, Pa., in Fayette County. It is not, as some have written, uh . . . in "Northeastern Central Pennsylvania." Definitely not "Northeastern Central West Virginia." Ugh.

Yes, I've been there. Right outside of Markleysburg, Pa. I visited with my colleague, artist, author and historian Colleen Nelson, who took the photo below. And yes, I've managed to stand in three states at once. It's difficult because of the large official monument on the precise location.

Pete Zapadka in 2002 at The Tripoint.

There actually are three stones in the area, each of which is on the Mason-Dixon Line: 

• The westernmost is the 1859 Michler Stone, yards off Pa. Route  281/W.Va. Route 26, a weathered monument behind a modern highway marker;

The Michler Stone, background, with a modern state line highway marker.

• The second is the stone pictured atop the blog and with me, which is official and often called The Tripoint, dated 1910 but becoming formal two years later;
• The third and easternmost is the Sinclair Stone, set in 1885 during a resurvey of the Pennsylvania and West Virginia borders. Obviously, the Sinclair Stone is too far east, and shamefully, it is badly damaged by vandalism.

The 1885 Sinclair Stone to the east of The Tripoint.

Each of the stones at one time also marked the Maryland-West Virginia border.

It is important to point out that NO stones on the Mason-Dixon Line in this area and to the west were placed in the original survey (1764-1767). The large monuments were too heavy to transport up and over the mountains. Markers here and west are from subsequent resurveys.

British astronomers and surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, by Aug. 14, 1767, had guided their team to a point a few thousand feet southwest of present-day Markleysburg. As the architects of the famous Mason-Dixon Line progressed westward, all the while determining the southern border of Pennsylvania, the team on that date came to the spot where modern-day Maryland ends – and the state now called West Virginia begins.

Charles Mason wrote on that date in the “Journal of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon” a brief entry:

“Continued the Line.

“At 198 Miles 69 Chains, the top of the ridge that divides the waters of the Yochio Geni from the waters of Sandy Creek, which runs into Cheat River.”

Mason referred to the distance they had progressed from the Post Mark'd West, their starting point of the beginning of the western portion of the Mason-Dixon Line; that post was a marker sat distantly to the east in present-day northern Delaware.

Although the 18th century surveyors were employed by the Calvert family of Maryland and the Penn family of Pennsylvania, the team made no mention of passing the limits of Maryland, nor did they take note of reaching what today is West Virginia.

The survey team marched on, passing the Cheat and Monongahela rivers, and halting shortly after crossing a Native American warpath, then the third crossing of Dunkard Creek in present-day Mason-Dixon Historical Park.

While the Mason-Dixon survey ended atop Brown's Hill, their line did not. Most local surveyors and historians agree the Mason-Dixon Line ends at the current southwest corner of Pennsylvania – 21 miles, 769.1 feet to the west of the 1883 monument.

The Cornerstone, also set in 1883 and standing at the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, lies at an agreed-upon 5 degrees in longitude from the Delaware River. It also establishes the Ellicott Line, Pennsylvania's western border.

This story provides only droplets in a teapot of what some have called “the most famous line in the world after the equator.” It is impossible to have a complete detail here.

I recommend you take some time to explore The Line! Learn about men such as Cephas H. Sinclair, C.H. van Orden, Andrew Ellicott, David Rittenhouse, Alexander McClean and Joseph Neville and what they meant to the Mason-Dixon Line. Finally, discover why the Mason-Dixon Line originally had nothing to do with the Civil War – it was surveyed a century earlier.

Pete Zapadka is lifelong amateur astronomer and retired journalist who for decades has researched and explored the Mason-Dixon Line. Zapadka served as chairman of the organizing board for Mason-Dixon 250 in 2017. The festival, held at Mason-Dixon Historical Park near Morgantown, W.Va., celebrated the 250th anniversary of the end of the Mason-Dixon Line survey. Sources for this blog include the book “Pennsylvania Boundaries” by William A. Russ Jr.; surveyor Todd Babcock and the Mason-Dixon Line Preservation Partnership.