Finding What's Left of the Mason-Dixon Line

To many Americans, the Mason-Dixon Line serves as a cultural dividing point between the North and South. But its storied past has both physical and symbolic meaning in the US, and Popular Mechanics' Ashley Stimpson takes a look at both in a fascinating stroll through its history. The literal Mason-Dixon line is a physical boundary drawn up to settle a turf war along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border during the 18th century, back when North American latitudes were unknown to European settlers. Today, finding and preserving all the 500-pound mile markers set by those early surveyors has become a passion project for modern ones, whom Stimpson traipsed alongside through field, yard, and forest (even stumbling upon a few of the stones herself).

The men tasked with drawing the line in 1763 were Charles Mason, an astronomer from the Britain's Royal Observatory, and Jeremiah Dixon, an astronomer and surveyor. After establishing a point of latitude using a special telescope that was so delicate it was carried around on a feather bed, the men set off through the wilderness, facing all manner of wildlife (bears, wolves) and weather (impenetrable snow and fog), with a team that grew to 115 as they painstakingly worked mile after mile. Stimpson's trek in their footsteps today followed surveyors in awe of the scientific feat Mason and Dixon achieved. And for decades, volunteers have puzzled through clues left behind on maps and hiked through terrain to find and catalog the 226 remaining stones. Read her full trip through time and terrain here. (And check out more Longform recaps).