FIRST -- Southern Boundary of the US, nr Mobile AL
N 30° 59.779 W 088° 01.511
16R E 402123 N 3429644
The Ellicott Stone marks the first Southern boundary between the United States and what was, in 1799, Spanish Florida. It also serves as the initial point (or Zero Stone) for all public land surveys in the Mississippi territory.
Waymark Code: WMNCDW
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 02/13/2015
Views: 4
The Ellicott Stone historic marker is in a roadside pullout, a few hundred yards from the stone.
The Alabama state historic marker reads as follows:
ELLICOTT'S STONE
Erected April 9th 1799
Marks 1st Southern Boundary of United States
and the Mississippi Territory created in 1798.
---- 900 feet east ----
Stone marked 31* North Latitude separating the US and Spanish Florida.
This line of demarcation ran from the Mississippi east, along the 31* parallel to the Chattahoochee River, thence down that river to the mouth of the Flint River, thence on a line to the headwaters of the St Mary's river, thence down that river to the Atlantic Ocean.
Major Andrew Ellicott, appointed by George Washington as U.S. Commissioner to survey the boundary as defined in the Treaty of San Lorenzo (1795), was engaged in this expedition from 1796 to 1800. Esteban Minor was appointed Commissioner on the Spanish side.
In 1803, the Ellicott Stone was selected as the Initial Point to begin the U.S. Public Land Surveys which control land boundaries in Southern Alabama and Mississippi (St. Stephen's Meridian)."
For more on the Ellicott Stone, see here: (
visit link)
"The Ellicott Stone
Turner, D. and Pitts, L. (2001) The Ellicott Stone. International Engineering History and Heritage: pp. 147-154.
Near the end of the 18th century, there were sharp clashes among the settlers in the Mississippi Territory, much of it caused by conflicting claims of sovereignty. The initial settlers encountered continuing boundary problems between the British (and later the Americans) and the Spanish in West Florida. In 1795, the Treaty of San Lorenzo el Real finally set the boundary between America and Spain as the 31° line of north latitude. The French, Spanish, and Americans agreed that an astronomer and surveyor by the name of Andrew Ellicott was the person to run the line of demarcation (boundary line) on the ground. Beginning in 1798, Ellicott lead a joint U.S.-Spanish Survey Commission on a two-year project to place monuments along the southern boundary of the nation, as called for by Article 2 of the Treaty. He started at the 31° line of latitude at the western end of the Mississippi Territory, which was about 13 miles south of Clarksville on the Mississippi River, near Bayou Tunica. When the line of demarcation was run past the Alabama city of St. Stephens in 1799, a stone was set on the banks of the Mobile River to denote the boundary. With the exception of this stone, the only other monuments along the boundary were mounds of dirt constructed by the joint survey crews. The marker is now known as the "Ellicott Stone." In 1917, a parcel of land around it was deeded to the City of Mobile to preserve this important historical marker. Today that plot is surrounded by lands of the Alabama Power Company, near the Barry Steam Plant at Axis, Alabama, north of Mobile on U.S. Highway 43. In 1968, the line of demarcation marked by Ellicott's Stone was chosen by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of ASCE's ten initial National Historic Civil Engineers Landmarks. A permanent marker was placed at the site to commemorate this designation. This places the old boundary line in the same company as the Hoover Dam and the Brooklyn Bridge. The Alabama Historical Commission recognized the importance of the Ellicott Stone again in 1974 by placing it on the National Register of Historic Places. At the time the Commission noted that it was the oldest aboveground artifact in the Southeast. A marker was placed on the eastern side of U.S. Highway 43, about five miles north of Axis, Alabama, to mark the location. A trail moving eastward leads to the stone."