Point B: “Half-Mile Point Between Sections 16 & 17”
Original Land Survey, Twp 7N, Rge 9E, 16-17 N, 16-21E
At the midpoint of this one-mile line, located in the southeastern corner of what we today know as Eagle Heights Woods, Deputy Surveyor Orson Lyon set a post and sighted to two trees:
“B. [black] Oak 30S 41E 86” and “White Oak 28N 24W 87”
Translated (converting the final number in each entry from surveyor’s links to feet, and ignoring the initial compass bearing information), this means that he found trees, both approximately 57 feet from the post in different directions. This suggests trees so widely spaced that one can probably characterize this location as savanna (or “oak opening,” as the surveyors themselves would have called it). The vegetation was thus very different from the dense forests we see near this location today.
Learn how to read and interpret this data with the help of our page Original land survey notes for the Lakeshore Nature Preserve vicinity, December 1834.