Fifth Principal Meridian Initial Point, Arkansas

The Fifth Principal Meridian was established in 1815 to survey the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, an area of 830,000 square miles. The meridian was then used to survey the land now comprising six states, from North Dakota to Arkansas. The southern end of the Meridian started at the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, and extended northward. The eastern end of the baseline started at the confluence of the St. Francis and Mississippi Rivers and extended westward. Their intersection formed the Initial Point in eastern Arkansas. It is one of 37 federal survey points of origin covering the USA (outside of the 13 original colonies), known as Initial Points, selected over a span of 150 years, to anchor newly acquired federal land to the legal and cartographic grid. After its use for the initial surveys, the uncommemorated point was more or less forgotten, until 1921, when surveyors discovered the marked witness trees that surrounded the original point. In 1926 an engraved stone monument was erected. In 1961 the area became the Louisiana Purchase State Park, and a wooden walkway was built a few years later, after the land became flooded.