Roseville, Minnesota
One block north of Roselawn Ave along Cleveland Ave, on the east side of the street, there is an inobtrusive monument marking the 45th Parallel. Instead of a upright boulder or stone cairn, this rock sits low in the grass, at an angle which makes it hard for the passerby to read. It is not in a public park, but placed on the lawn in between houses near the sidewalk. The more recent "Roseville Heritage Trail" sign is a bit of an ugly addition to the site and detracts from the minimalist subtlety of the monument, but it is more effective for attracting notice from the motorists racing past on busy Cleveland Avenue.
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Monument The forty-fifth parallel of north latitude on the surface of the earth runs through this boulder. It is an east and west line which is exactly one-half the distance between the Equator and the North Pole or a distance of 3102 miles each way. Located by Ramsey County Surveyor Plaque recast November 1994 |
As mentioned on the monument, the original bronze plaque was placed here in 1940. Some time around 1990, vandals pried the plaque off the boulder and the boulder lay blank for several years. When Cleveland Avenue was being rebuilt in 1994, the Capitol Area Land Surveyors Association of St. Paul created a replacement plaque, which was rededicated on October 12, 1995.
View 45th Parallel Markers in Google Maps
