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The Surveyor LbNA #75374

Owner:Boots Tex Contact
Plant date:Mar 2, 2021
Location: Meridian State Park
City:Meridian
County:Bosque
State:Texas
Boxes:1
Found by: hibiscuschick
Last found:Oct 9, 2023
Status:FFFFFFF
Last edited:Mar 3, 2021
George Bernard Erath was a man of many talents; soldier, Texas Ranger and legislator, but he is remembered best as a surveyor, both for the Republic of Texas and the state of Texas. You might even call him THE SURVEYOR of Texas. He was born on January 1, 1813, in Vienna, Austria, and attended Vienna Polytechnic Institute, where he studied English and Spanish. He sailed for America after graduation and landed in New Orleans on July 8, 1832. On March 22, 1833, he moved to the Republic of Texas, where he became a surveyor in Tenoxtitlán, in Robertson's colony. In 1835 he worked as a ranger and in 1836 served as a soldier at the Battle of San Jacinto. He platted the town of Caldwell in 1840. By 1841 he had become the captain of the Milam County minute company. In 1842 he participated in the botched Somervell and Mier expeditions but was on guard duty on the Rio Grande during the battle of Mier and thus escaped capture.
As a member of the House of Representatives of the Eighth and Ninth congresses of the republic, 1843–1845, Erath represented Milam County and was energetic and effective in his support of the annexation of Texas to the United States. After statehood, he was elected to the First Legislature. In 1846 he returned to surveying and laid out the towns of Waco and Stephenville. He was elected to the Senate of the Seventh Legislature in 1857 and subsequently reelected to the Eighth and Ninth. In 1854, when Bosque County was established, George Erath was hired to survey a townsite for the county seat. When he had surveyed Milam County in 1837, he had named two creeks Meridian Creek and Meridian Knobs because of their proximity to the ninety-eighth meridian. When county commissioners met to name the county seat of Bosque County, they named it Meridian, likely as a tribute to The Surveyor, George Bernard Erath.

Directions: This box is located in Meridian State Park, 3 miles southwest of Meridian, Texas on State Highway 22. Go to the park and obtain a day pass and a trail map. If you hold a Texas State Parks Annual Pass, admission is free. The box is near Little Forest Junior Trail.

To the box: Find the parking area that is shown at the top of the trail map inside the Little Forest Junior Trail loop. Park there and look for the hiking trail sign. Cross the trail and look for a faint road into the woods on the left, about 25 steps. Go about 20 steps down the road and look to your right for a tall leaning oak tree. The box lies at its base under rocks.


Hike length: 0.1 miles