Mason-Dixon Crown Marker
Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Dedicated October 28, 1984
The Story
The Mason-Dixon Line began as the peaceful settlement of a long and bitter boundary quarrel between the Penn family of Pennsylvania and the Calverts of Maryland. Between 1763 and 1767 the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon ran the line westward with remarkable precision, setting stone markers as they went; at every fifth mile they planted an ornate "crownstone" carved with the coats of arms of the two proprietary families. A crown marker like this one, re-dedicated in 1984, honors that painstaking survey and the famous boundary it fixed across the York County countryside.
Why it matters
The line Mason and Dixon drew outlived its colonial purpose to become the symbolic border between North and South — the divide between free and slave states before the Civil War, and ever after a cultural shorthand for the line across America.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Hanover Fire Museum9.7 mi away
- Neas House10.3 mi away · 103 West Chestnut Street, Hanover, PA
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Related people
- · Charles Mason
- · Jeremiah Dixon
Related events
- · Mason-Dixon Line survey (1763–1767)
- · Pennsylvania–Maryland boundary dispute
Themes & tags
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