Meades Ranch is a location in Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 that was designated as the geodetic base point for the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD 27).

Location

It is located at 39°13′26.71218"N 98°32′31.74604"W (39.224087, -98.542152, NAD83), twelve miles (19 km) north of Lucas, Kansas

Lucas, Kansas

Lucas is a city in Russell County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 393.-Geography:Lucas is located at at an elevation of 1,489 feet . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. It lies in the Smoky Hills...

, twenty miles (38 km) south of Downs, Kansas

Downs, Kansas

Downs is a city in Osborne County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 900.-History:Downs began as the end point of the Central Branch Railroad in 1879. It became an incorporated town in December of the same year. In 1910, the city had a population of 1,427...

, and nine miles (14 km) southwest of Tipton, Kansas

Tipton, Kansas

Tipton is a city in Mitchell County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 210.-Geography:Tipton is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 243...

. A roadside marker describing Meades Ranch is located seventeen miles (27 km) north-northwest of Meades Ranch in a park just east of the junction of U.S. 24 and U.S. 281 in northeastern Osborne, Kansas

Osborne, Kansas

Osborne is a city in and the county seat of Osborne County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,431.-History:...

. Meades Ranch is about 40 miles (64 km) south of the geographic center of the forty-eight contiguous U.S. states

Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States

One of the locations claimed to be the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States is pinpointed by a historical marker that is located within a small park near the town of Lebanon, Kansas. It is located at the intersection of AA Road and K-191, accessible by a turn-off from U.S...

 which is near Lebanon, Kansas

Lebanon, Kansas

Lebanon is a city in Smith County, Kansas, United States, in the north central part of the state. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 218. In 1918, a scientific survey established that the geographic center of what was then the United States lies near the town and a monument was...

.

Reference ellipsoid

Meades Ranch was the reference point for almost all land survey

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

 measurements in the United States from 1927 until the establishment of the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) and the World Geodetic System

World Geodetic System

The World Geodetic System is a standard for use in cartography, geodesy, and navigation. It comprises a standard coordinate frame for the Earth, a standard spheroidal reference surface for raw altitude data, and a gravitational equipotential surface that defines the nominal sea level.The latest...

 of 1984 (WGS84). NAD 27 was based on the Clarke

Alexander Ross Clarke

Alexander Ross Clarke was a British geodesist, primarily remembered for his work defining different reference ellipsoids approximating the shape of the geoid.Clarke was born on December 16, 1828 in Reading, Berkshire, England...

 ellipsoid of 1866. A reference ellipsoid

Reference ellipsoid

In geodesy, a reference ellipsoid is a mathematically-defined surface that approximates the geoid, the truer figure of the Earth, or other planetary body....

 is an attempt to closely describe mathematically the actual shape of the earth — the geoid

Geoid

The geoid is that equipotential surface which would coincide exactly with the mean ocean surface of the Earth, if the oceans were in equilibrium, at rest , and extended through the continents . According to C.F...

. Calculations for map projections are performed using the parameters of the ellipsoid. The geoid, being irregular, is impossible to precisely model mathematically. For the purpose of the NAD 27, the geoidal height at Meades Ranch was assumed to be zero so that the geoid (mean sea level) and the ellipsoid intersect at that point.

In popular culture

This geodetic center is featured in the 2006 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

Manhattan, Kansas by Tara Wray, which is about her reconciliation with her mentally unstable mother Evie Wray. Evie is shown searching for the Geodetic Center, the finding of which she says will bring about world peace.