The "Georgia Geodetic Survey"

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:44:56 GMT

Have you heard of The Georgia Geodetic Survey?

Joe Hale of Kern & Coleman in Savannah sent me this picture of a benchmark disk. We cannot find any information about it. If any reader can help us find out more about these monuments, we would appreciate your help.

The monument is along Coffee Bluff Rd. in Chatham County.

Please check out the photo.

Thanks,

The Georgia Geodetic Survey

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 14:01:14 GMT

The Geodetic survey was run in the early 1930's. It was born out of the Public Work Projects. There was a book published to go along with the control network that was set. There was also a lithograph map that is 18”x24” in the rear sleeve. Here is a picture of the book. I scanned the introduction which is worth reading.

Here is the link to the introduction. Link

here is the link to the controle: description

here is the link to the cordinates: cordinates pg1

here is the link to the cordinates: cordinates pg2

Josh 4

Mon, 1 Dec 2014 15:58:28 GMT

Below are the three books that were produced as a result of and that describe the Geodetic Survey of Georgia. The first is the one described by Josh. They describe the geodetic monuments throughout the state that existed at that time in great detail. The Geodetic Survey of Georgia was mainly a WPA project, but had and has practical applications. I’ve seen the first two volumes listed below offered for sale as a set on the internet for less than $100. The University of Georgia Library has Frederick H. McDonald’s personal copy of the first volume at: Georgia Room/QB296/.U9G4. It has newspaper clippings glued in and handwritten notes about the Geodetic Survey of Georgia and about McDonald. The additional items below are the acts that created the Geodetic Survey of Georgia. I took the acts from the Georgia Legislative Documents Project web site. The copies of the acts in it were scanned using optical recognition software and are not totally reliable. To get completely reliable copies you need to go to the published versions.

I am very familiar with Coffee Bluff Road in Chatham County. Do you have the coordinates or other description of the monument in the picture that you can post? If so, I can look it up in the books referred to.

Farris Cadle

Georgia. State Highway Board. Geodetic Survey of Georgia Published by the State of Georgia as a Report on Official Project No. 65-34-4581. Conducted under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration of Georgia, in Cooperation with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, l933-l938. Edited by Frederick H. McDonald. With L. G. Simmons, technical adviser. Sponsored by Georgia School of Technology. Atlanta: Division of Highway Planning, State Highway Board of Georgia, 1938.

---. Geodetic Survey of Georgia. Supplement. Conducted in Cooperation with Federal Works Agency, Works Project Administration, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Division of Highway Planning. Atlanta: State Highway Board of Georgia, 1942.

United States. Work Projects Administration. Georgia. State Planning Board. Geodetic Survey of Glynn County, Georgia. Published by the Glynn County Planning Board as a Report on Official Project No. 65-1-34-104. Prosecuted by the Federal Works Agency Work Projects Administration, in Cooperation with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Georgia State Planning Board. Atlanta: 1940.

ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA 1939

PART II.--LOCAL AND SPECIAL LAWS

TITLE II. COUNTIES AND COUNTY MATTERS.

1939 Vol. 1 -- Page 609

Sequential Number: 254

Short Title: GLYNN -- U. S. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY SYSTEM ADOPTED.

Law Number: No. 68.

Full Title: An Act to describe, define and officially name a system of coordinates for designating the positions of points

[page 610:]

on the surface of the earth within Glynn County; and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia:

Section 1. The system of plane rectangular coordinates which has been established by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for defining and stating the positions or locations of points in the eastern part of Georgia and officially known by that Bureau as "The Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone," is hereby adopted for that use in Glynn County.

[Sidenote: Adoption of system.]

Section 2. The plane rectangular coordinates of a point on the earth's surface, to be used in expressing the position of location of such point in this system, shall consist of two distances, expressed in feet and decimals thereof. One of these distances to be known as the "x coordinate" shall give the position in an east-and-west direction; the other to be known as the "y coordinate" shall give the position in a north-and-south direction. These coordinates shall be made to depend upon and conform to the plane rectangular coordinates of the triangulation and traverse stations of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey within Glynn County, as these coordinates have been determined by said survey.

[Sidenote: Coordinates.]

Section 3. For the purpose of more precisely defining the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, the following definition by the United States Coast & Geodetic Survey is adopted;

[Sidenote: System defined.]

The Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, is a transverse Mercator projection of the Clarke Spheroid of 1866, having a central meridian 82 degrees 10 minutes west from Greenwich, on which meridian the scale is set one part in 10,000 too small. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of the meridian 82 degrees

[page 611:]

10 minutes west longitude and the parallel 30 minutes north latitude. This origin is given the coordinates:

x -- 500,000 feet and y -- 0 feet

The position of the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, shall be as marked on the ground by triangulation or traverse stations established in conformity with standards adopted by the United States Coast & Geodetic Survey for first-and second-order work, whose geodetic positions have been rigidly adjusted on the North American datum of 1927 and whose coordinates have been computed on the system herein defined.

[Sidenote: Traverse stations.]

Section 4. For the purpose of describing the location of any survey station or land boundary corner in Glynn County it shall be considered a complete legal and satisfactory description of such location to give the position of survey station or land boundary corner on the system of plane coordinates established by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and defined in this Act.

[Sidenote: Legal description.]

Section 5. The Glynn County Planning Board shall have authority to formulate rules and regulations for surveys to be based on the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone and for the administration of this Act.

[Sidenote: Planning board to formulate rules.]

Section 6. The use of the term "Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone" on any map, report or survey, or other document, shall be limited to coordinates based on the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, as defined in this Act.

[Sidenote: Limit of system.]

Section 7. Nothing Contained in this Act shall be interpreted as requiring any purchaser or mortgagee to rely wholly on a description based upon the aforementioned system.

[Sidenote: Purchasers and mortgagees.]

Section 8. This Act is to take effect January 1st, 1940.

[Sidenote: Effective date.]

[page 612:]

Section 9. All laws and parts of laws in conflict here-with are hereby repealed.

Approval Date: Approved February 21, 1939.

ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA 1941

PART II.--LOCAL AND SPECIAL LAWS.

TITLE II. COUNTIES AND COUNTY MATTERS.

1941 Vol. 1 -- Page 788

Sequential Number: 269

Short Title: BRYAN -- U. S. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY SYSTEM ADOPTED.

Law Number: No. 235.

Full Title: An Act To describe, define and officially name a system of coordinates for designating the positions of points on the surface of the earth within Bryan County; and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia:

Section 1. The system of plans rectangular coordinates which has been established by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for defining and stating the positions or locations of points in the eastern part of Georgia and officially known by that Bureau as "The Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone", is hereby adopted for that use in Bryan County.

[Sidenote: System adopted.]

[page 789:]

County, as these coordinates have been determined by said survey.

[Sidenote: Coordinates named.]

Section 3. For the purpose of more precisely defining the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, the following definition by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is adopted;

[Sidenote: Definition.]

x = 500,000 feet and y = 0 feet.

The position of the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, shall be as marked on the ground by triangulation of traverse stations established in conformity with standards adopted by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for first-and second-order work, whose geodetic positions have been rigidly adjusted on the North American datum of 1927 and whose coordinates have been computed on the system herein defined.

Section 4. For the purpose of describing the location of any survey station or land boundary corner in Bryan County it shall be considered a complete legal and satisfactory description of such location to give the position of survey station or land boundary corner on the system of plane coordinates established by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and defined in this Act.

[Sidenote: Uses.]

Section 5. The Commissioners of Roads and Revenues of Bryan County shall have authority to formulate rules and regulations for surveys to be based on the Georgia

[page 790:]

Coordinate System, East Zone, and for the administration of this Act.

[Sidenote: Limitation.]

Section 7. Nothing contained in this Act shall be interpreted as requiring any purchaser or mortgagee to rely wholly on a description based upon the aforementioned system.

Section 8. This Act is to take effect January 1st, 1940.

[Sidenote: Effective date.]

Section 9. All laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Approval Date: Approved March 22, 1941.

ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA 1941

PART II.--LOCAL AND SPECIAL LAWS.

TITLE II. COUNTIES AND COUNTY MATTERS.

1941 Vol. 1 -- Page 918

Sequential Number: 312

Short Title: LIBERTY -- U. S. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY ADOPTED.

Law Number: No. 400.

Full Title: An Act To describe, define and officially name a system of coordinates for designating the positions of points on the surface of the earth within Liberty County; and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia:

[Sidenote: Geodetic survey adopted.]

Section 2. The plane rectangular coordinates of a point on the earth's surface, to be used in expressing the position of location of such point in this system, shall consist of two distances, expressed in feet and decimals thereof. One of these distances to be known as the "x coordinate" shall give the position in an east-and-west direction; the other to be known as the "y coordinate" shall give the position in a north-and-south direction. These coordinates shall be made to depend upon and conform to the plane rectangular coordinates of the triangulation and traverse stations of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey within Liberty County, as these coordinates have been determined by said survey.

[Sidenote: Coordinates.]

Section 3. For the purpose of more precisely defining the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, the following definition by the United States Coast & Geodetic Survey is adopted;

[page 919:]

[Sidenote: Definition.]

x -- 500,000 feet and 7 -- 0 feet.

The position of the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, shall be as marked on the ground by triangulation of traverse stations established in conformity with standards adopted by the United States Coast & Geodetic Survey for first-and second-order work, whose geodetic positions have been rigidly adjusted on the North American datum of 1927 and whose coordinates have been computed on the system herein defined.

Section 4. For the purpose of describing the location of any survey station or land boundary corner in Liberty County it shall be considered a complete legal and satisfactory description of such location to give the position of survey station or land boundary corner on the system of plane coordinates established by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and defined in this Act.

[Sidenote: Legal description.]

Section 5. The Planning Board or Commissioners of Roads and Revenues of Liberty County shall have authority to formulate rules and regulations for surveys to be based on the Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, and for the administration of this Act.

[Sidenote: Rules for surveys.]

[Sidenote: Limitations.]

Section 7. Nothing contained in this Act shall be interpreted

[page 920:]

as requiring any purchaser or mortgagee to rely wholly on a description based upon the aforementioned system.

Section 8. This Act is to take effect upon the date it is passed.

[Sidenote: Effective date.]

Section 9. All laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Approval Date: Approved March 27, 1941.

ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA 1945

PART I

Amendment to Constitution of Georgia of 1877. Title I

1945 Vol. 1 -- Page 218

Sequential Number: 068

Short Title: GEORGIA COORDINATE SYSTEM.

Law Number: No. 274.

Full Title: An Act to describe, define, and officially adopt a system of coordinates for designating and stating the positions of points on the surface of the earth within the State of Georgia and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Georgia and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same:

Section 1. The system of plane coordinates which has been established by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for defining and stating the positions or locations of points on the surface of the earth within the State of Georgia is hereafter to be known and designated as the "Georgia Coordinate System."

For the purpose of the use of this system the State is divided into an "East Zone" and a "West Zone."

The area now included in the following counties shall constitute the East zone: Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baldwin, Brantley, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Columbia, Dodge, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Emanuel, Evans, Franklin, Glascock, Glynn, Greene, Hancock, Hart, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Laurens, Liberty, Lincoln, Long, McDuffie, McIntosh, Madison, Montgomery, Oglethorpe, Pierce, Richmond, Screven, Stephens, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Wheeler, Wilkes, and Wilkinson.

[Sidenote: Zones.]

The area now included in the following counties shall constitute the West Zone: Baker, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley, Brooks, Butts, Calhoun, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clay, Clayton, Cobb, Colquitt, Cook,

[page 219:]

Coweta, Crawford, Crisp, Dade, Dawson, Decatur, DeKalb, Dooly, Dougherty, Douglas, Early, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton, Gilmer, Gordon, Grady, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Haralson, Harris, Heard, Henry, Houston, Irwin, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Lanier, Lee, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, Marion, Meriwether, Miller, Mitchell, Monroe, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Paulding, Peach, Pickens, Pike, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Quitman, Rabun, Randolph, Rockdale, Schley, Seminole, Spalding, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Towns, Troup, Turner, Twiggs, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Webster, White, Whitfield, Wilcox, and Worth.

Section 2. As established for use in the East Zone, the Georgia Coordinate System shall be named, and in any land description in which it is used it shall be designated, the "Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone."

[Sidenote: Land description.]

As established for use in the West Zone, the Georgia Coordinate System shall be named, and in any land description in which it is used it shall be designated, the "Georgia Coordinate System, West Zone."

Section 3. The plane coordinates of a point on the earth's surface, to be used in expressing the position or location of such point in the appropriate zone of this system, shall consist of two distances, expressed in feet and decimals of a foot. One of these distances, to be known as the "x-coordinate", shall give the position in an east-and-west direction; the other, to be known as the "y-coordinate", shall give the position in a north-and-south direction. These coordinates shall be made to depend upon and conform to the coordinates, on the Georgia Coordinate System, of the triangulation and traverse stations within the State of Georgia, as those coordinates have been determined by said survey.

Section 4. When any tract of land to be defined by a single description extends from one into the other of the above coordinate zones, the positions of all points on its boundaries may be referred to either of said zones, the zone which is used being specifically named in the description.

[page 220:]

Section 5. (a) For the purpose of more precisely defining the Georgia Coordinate System, the following definition by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is adopted.

The Georgia Coordinate System, East Zone, is a transverse Mercator projection of the Clarke spheroid of 1866, having a central meridian eighty-two degrees ten minutes west of Greenwich, on which meridian the scale is set one part in 10,000 too small. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of the meridian eighty-two degrees ten minutes west of Greenwich and the parallel thirty degrees north latitude. This origin is given the coordinates: x - 500,000 feet and y - 0 feet.

[Sidenote: Definition.]

The Georgia Coordinate System, West Zone, is a transverse Mercator projection of the Clarke spheroid of 1866, having a central meridian eighty-four degrees ten minutes west of Greenwich, on which meridian the scale is set one part in 10,000 too small. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of the meridian eighty-four degrees ten minutes west of Greenwich and the parallel thirty degrees north latitude. This origin is given the coordinates: x - 500,000 feet and y - 0 feet.

(b) The position of the Georgia Coordinate System shall be as marked on the ground by triangulation or traverse stations established in conformity with standards adopted by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for first-order and second-order work, whose geodetic positions have been rigidly adjusted on the North American datum of 1927, and whose coordinates have been computed on the system herein defined. Any such station may be used for establishing a survey connection with the Georgia Coordinate System.

Section 6. The use of the term "Georgia Coordinate System" on any map, report of survey, or other document, shall be limited to coordinates based on the Georgia Coordinate System as defined in this Act.

Section 7. Nothing contained in this Act shall require any purchaser or mortgagee to rely on a description, any

[page 221:]

part of which depends exclusively upon the Georgia Coordinate System. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to require any person, firm, or corporation to use the system of co-ordinates herein provided for in order to obtain or secure a legal description of land or real estate.

Section 8. If any provision of this Act shall be declared invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other portion of this Act which can be given effect without the invalid portion, and to this end the provisions of this Act are declared to be severable.

Section 9. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Approval Date: Approved March 6, 1945.

Georgia Geodetic Survey

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 17:06:04 GMT

A colleague of mine recently discovered the point across the river from the other side of the Vernon River along Whitefield Avenue Marked "Georgia Geodetic Survey Station No. 30H8. The monument is located in the middle of the driveway at 9836 Whitefield Ave. Approximately 8 feet off the road.

Sincerely,
David Anderson

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 18:15:21 GMT

Josh,

I can't get your links to work, it only says they "don't exist", or am I doing something wrong? Could you post it again?

Thank you,
Steve

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 04:46:52 GMT

Two of the books about the Geodetic Survey of Georgia that are listed above are now online. Below are the locations, and three additional related books that are also online. The hard copy of the first book listed has a fold-out map in a back pocket but this does not seem to be included in the online version.

Georgia. State Highway Board. Geodetic Survey of Georgia, Published by the State of Georgia as a Report on Official Project No. 65-34-4581. Conducted under the Auspices of the Works Progress Administration of Georgia, in Cooperation with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, l933-l938. Edited by Frederick Honour McDonald. With Lansing G. Simmons, technical adviser. Sponsored by Georgia School of Technology. Atlanta: Division of Highway Planning, State Highway Board of Georgia, 1938.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102203987

United States. Work Projects Administration. Georgia. State Planning Board. Geodetic Survey of Glynn County, Georgia. Published by the Glynn County Planning Board as a Report on Official Project No. 65-1-34-104. Prosecuted by the Federal Works Agency Work Projects Administration, in Cooperation with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Georgia State Planning Board. Atlanta: 1940.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102852435

United States. Department of Commerce. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Geodesy: Descriptions of Triangulation Stations in Georgia. By Clarence H. Swick. Special Publication No. 45. Washington, D.C.: 1917.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102381462

United States. Department of Commerce. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Geodesy: Triangulation in Georgia. By Clarence H. Swick. Serial No. 65. Special Publication No. 43. Washington, D.C.: 1917.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102381463

United States. Department of Commerce. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Precise Leveling in Georgia. By Henry G. Avers. Special Publication No. 95. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923.

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102381438