Meades Ranch is a location in Kansas, United States that was designated as the geodetic base point for the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD 27). It was chosen in 1901 because it was a triangulation station at the junction of the trancontinental triangulation arc of 1899 on the 39th parallel north and the triangulation arc along the 98th meridian west that was near the geographic center of the contiguous United States.