This was not at the place that was later designated as "Zero Point", the round disk from where all official measurements of distances in the country are drawn until well into the 1960's the mythology that the two spots were the same was widely accepted, but research showed that the spot where the spikes were hammered in was approximately 30-40 feet to the west, and about 15 feet further away from the river's edge.īelle Haven was the first municipality in the Commonwealth to be designated as a city under the definitions laid out in the Commonwealth of Baker Park Act (1892). When the "officials" present-William J Baker, oldest grandson of George W Baker George W Baker II, his 21 year old cousin who would be the nation's second Prime Minister 25 years later Duncan Evans Jacoby, the ship's captain who is said to have chosen the spot and two other Baker Company employees-had done the ritual preliminaries, they drove heavy cast iron spikes into the ground in the manner of a star. Although Newport was the first established settlement in Baker Park, Belle Haven was selected to be the primary center of immigration and relocation for the country on April 30, 1880-13 days following the official claim of control, when the initial wave of permanent workers arrived-the steamer Belhaven landed a party of approximately 16 on the northern edge of the river.
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