Isn't it the mean high water mark of 1787 that counts? If so, Walter's 
comment about fill is on the mark, so that there may well be a spot of 
land that is Maryland on Jones Point. Additionally, the bay just south 
of Jones Point is silting up very badly, and will soon turn into marsh 
and then land. I think that land will be Maryland also, since it is 
Maryland as water now.

And the stone marker is definitely south of the lighthouse, next to 
which was the tree which contained the tanager. That makes the tanager 
inside the original diamond-shaped boundary of the District. But in the 
1840's the other side of the District was returned to that state to our 
south, so the lighthouse and its immediate environs are firmly in that 
other state -- by a few feet. (Or at least it was when I was growing up 
in Old Town forty years ago...) Presumably the tree wasn't so large that 
its branches overhung the river. It is very unlikely that the tanager 
was seen in Maryland or DC, given the description as being in a tree 
next to the lighthouse.

John McKitterick
jbmck_at_comcast.net


Rich Dolesh wrote:

>Subject: RE: [MDOSPREY] Early Scarlet Tanager
>
>Sorry--fishing map doesn't cut it.  "Fast" land is that land above the Mean
>High Water mark, which means that Jones Point is in Virginia--or is it?
>Read below from a Tour of Potomac River Lighthouses:  
>"THE PARK
>Jones Point Park is significant because it features the south cornerstone of
>D.C., which was placed in 1791. It is a stone marker indicating one of the
>corners of the original boundaries of the diamond-shaped 10-square-mile
>District of Columbia."
>
>Hmmm, does that make the sighting in the District of Columbia?
>
>Rich Dolesh
>Aquasco, MD
>
>  
>