Geological Survey of New Jersey

REPORT

ON A

SURVEY OF THE BOUNDARY LINE

BETWEEN

NEW JERSEY AND NEW YORK,

MADE IN JULY AND AUGUST, 1874.

GEORGE H. COOK,

STATE GEOLOGIST,

New Brunswick, N. I. :

TERHUNE & VAN ANGLEN'S PRESS, 31 ALBANY STREET.

1874.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY JOEL PARKER, Governor of the State of New Jersey, and ex-officio President of the Board of Managers of the State Geological Survey.

SIR :

I have the honor herewith to submit my report upon the Survey of the Boundary or "Partition" line between New Jersey and New York.

With high respect,

Your obedient servant,

GEORGE H. COOK,

State Geologist.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J., Sept. 8, 1874.

REPORT.

FROM the beginning of the Geological Survey it has been noticed that the mile monuments, which mark the line of division between this state and New York, are not well protected, or fixed so as to ensure their permanency. Several of them were not to be found; of these one or two were reported to have been burned into lime. Three others were found lying on the ground not far from the line. It is also suspected that some of those now standing have been moved from their original locations by landowners, for dishonest purposes. And it was known by local surveys that the monuments were not all in a straight line.* These particulars have been brought to the attention of the Board of Managers in former reports of this Survey. And in view of the doubtful accuracy of the monuments as they now stand, and the important questions of property as well as jurisdiction depending on the correct location of this line, a vote was passed by your Board at its meeting in Dec. 1872, authorizing the State Geologist to have the line, as the monuments now mark it, surveyed. This Survey has been made and its results are herewith presented.

A short account of the boundary itself, the questions which have arisen regarding it, and the means heretofore taken to ascertain and mark it, seems important for the proper understanding of this Survey.

*The late Capt. H. L. Southard, in 1859, surveyed the line across the Ringwood Tract, from the 19th to the 25th mile-stone, and showed that the monuments there were not set in a straight line.