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Do you know what Initial Point, Arizona is? Neither did most people I asked.

Back in the 1850s and 60s when Arizona was surveyed, they needed a point to start from.  For a variety of reasons, they chose the peak of a particular hill. It was near the convergence of the Gila and Salt rivers, and it contained a small marking structure already. Eventually, it was turned into the monument you see here.

Initial point is located at approximately 115th Ave (also known as Avondale Rd) and Baseline Rd. (Ever wonder where Baseline gets it’s name? It’s because it’s the base line of the surveying in Arizona)  It’s atop the hill directly east of the Phoenix International Raceway.  To be precise, it is located at N 33.37717  W 112.30613.

Since I had never been to the area, and it was an interesting enough thing to go see, I was willing to spend the gas money to go see the monument.  It was amazingly green around there. You’d think that the gila and salt rivers were in the area or something. Check out the rest of the pictures here.