In The Long Winter, Almanzo Wilder rode after runaway Lady and lost sight of town. It didn’t matter, though: “As long as the sun was in the sky or the moon or stars he could not be lost.” (Chapter 20, “Antelope”)
Almanzo didn’t mean that he could pinpoint his latitude or longitude (or township or range) using no clock or instruments; he meant that he had enough working knowledge of the day and night sky to be able to tell cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west.
Figuring out latitude and longitude thrills me. I’m pretty good with maps, but I hate to admit that I tend to get turned around in real life, even when the sun is shining – or worse – setting. “Yes, I see the sun setting in front of me, but I also think I need to turn left to go north.”
I recently checked Longitude (by Dava Sobel) out of the library, and I loved it so much, I bought The Illustrated Longitude, by Dava Sobel and William J.H. Andrews (New York: Walker & Company, 1998).
Latitude, longitude, township, range. Fascinating! Somebody asked me recently if you could convert latitude and longitude to township and range. You can, but it’s easier to do it HERE (plus there’s a link to go in the other direction). Gotta love the Environmental Statistics Group at Montana State University. Gotta love anything from Montana. Period.
This is useful and fun if you’re in Kingsbury County with your GPS device and want a photo of yourself standing on Minnie Johnson’s homestead. It will only get you to the center of the proper section, though. You’ll have to use the sun or moon or stars to know which which way to go to be standing in the proper quarter section.
