Stargazers

You might know this song by Mark Knopfler:

* * *

"Now hold your head up, Mason

See America lies there

The morning tide has raised

The capes of Delaware

Come up and feel the sun

A new morning has begun

Another day will make it clear

Why your stars should guide us here

"We are sailing to Philadelphia

A world away from the coaly Tyne

Sailing to Philadelphia 

To draw the line

A Mason-Dixon Line"

Here is a great video of Mark Knopfler performing "Sailing to Philadelphia".

The song tells of two surveyors, Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, who sailed from England to Philadelphia to undertake a commission to draw a line to establish the disputed boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

This line, the Mason-Dixon Line, would have been famous enough for the feat of surveying it represented.  But it has achieved a transcendent reputation as the cultural line separating North from South in the Civil War, and, after that, the sociological boundary between northern and southern cultures of the modern United States.

Mason's and Dixon's actual survey line began to the south of Philadelphia and extended from a benchmark east to the Delaware River and west to what was then the boundary with western Virginia. The surveyors also fixed the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania and the approximately north–south portion of the boundary between Delaware and Maryland.

The Mason–Dixon Line was marked by stones every mile and "crownstones" every five miles, using stone shipped from England. The Maryland side says (M) and the Delaware and Pennsylvania sides say (P). Crownstones include the two coats-of-arms. Today, while a number of the original stones are missing or buried, many are still visible, resting on public land and protected by iron cages.

The Stargazers' Stone was placed by Mason and Dixon about 700 feet (213 m) north of the Harlan House, presently located at the intersection of Embreeville Road and Stargazers Road in Emlin, Chester County, Pennsylvania, just north of the KOA campground where we are staying.  The farmhouse was used as a base of operations by Mason and Dixon through the four-and-a-half-year-long survey. Selected to be about 31 miles (50 km) west of the then southernmost point in Philadelphia, the observatory was used to determine the precise latitude of its location. The latitude of the Maryland-Pennsylvania border was then set to be 15 miles (24.1 km) south of the point in Philadelphia. The farm, including the house and stone, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 9, 1985, and further information on the Stargazers' Stone can be found in databases on historical markers.

Today we walked through the Natural Lands Trust's ChesLen Preserve to the Harlan House, which is marked by a plaque:

About 100 yards further north on Stargazers Road, we found a road marker for the stone.  It is getting overgrown and we wonder how interested the owner of the land on which the stone is located wants to preserve and commemorate the stone:

A short walk up the hill behind the bushes in which this marker was set brought us to a whitewashed fieldstone enclosure in which the Stargazer Stone is set:

In the photo above, Kathy is checking to see whether there is a clear view to the stars, such as would facilitate surveying.  Here is what she saw, and it demonstrates that the Stargazers' Stone has an ample panoramic view of the heavens:

David examined the stone more closely:

A plaque is erected in front of the stone:

The plaque bears the following inscription:

 The Star-Gazers’ Stone Erected in 1764 by Mason and Dixon

 in locating the Pennsylvania-Maryland Boundary Line 

Being 15 miles North thereof and 31 miles due West of Philadelphia. 

Here they also measured a degree of Latitude on the Earth’s surface southward, 

and made other Astronomical observations; 

Hence the name 

Enclosed and marked by The Chester County Historical Society

We contemplated all of this as we walked back down Embreeville Road, dodging the manic drivers who were pinioning around the sharp, narrow corners of the road as if it were the Pocono Raceway. Mark Knopfler's song came to mind and we were humming his tune as we reached our campground.