So two scientists, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were sent to the New World to draw the line. Together, aided by soldiers who beat back, displaced, and killed Indians along the way, and accompanied by dozens of workers, they traced the 233 east-west and 83 north-south miles of borderland between Maryland and Pennsylvania with their newly gleaned knowledge. Stones were placed at every mile along the way. And every fifth mile, a seventy-pound crownstone, imported from England, was placed. Each had an M on the Maryland side and a P on the Pennsylvania side. That was how the Mason-Dixon Line
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