The Sixth Principal Meridian
Nebraska
This quiet spot on the Kansas Nebraska line is one of the most important points you have never heard of. It is the initial point of the Sixth Principal Meridian. From this single marker, the land surveys that carved up Kansas, Nebraska, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota were all measured.
Every section, township, and range across that vast region traces back to here. In eighteen fifty five, after Congress opened the Kansas and Nebraska territories, an Army engineer fixed the fortieth parallel along the Missouri River, and a surveyor named Charles Manners ran a base line westward to set this point. The original red sandstone marker was broken and lost for decades, then rediscovered in nineteen eighty six and carefully reburied at the exact spot.
The orderly grid of farms and roads you see for hundreds of miles all radiates outward from this hidden stone.
