PHILADELPHIA – If Todd Babcock had his way, the Mason-Dixon Line would be known as the technological marvel that kept Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, not as flawed shorthand for the CivilWar divide between North and South.

The land survey that settled a border feud between Pennsylvania and Maryland predates the Civil War by a century. It started at a house in Philadelphia whose location was only recently confirmed by a group of college students paging through centuries-old property records.

The research led state officials to approve a historical marker for the site last month. Babcock and other members of the volunteer Mason and Dixon Line Preservation Partnership plan to erect it for the line’s 250th anniversary in 2013.

“Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon’s accomplishment has been buried in the fog of bad history, and I hope to change that,” said Babcock, 46, a professional surveyor from Fleetwood, Pa.

Babcock’s efforts come as the U.S. marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. “Mason-Dixon” has become synonymous with the North-South line.

The boundary had nothing to do with that. Begun in 1763 and lasting four grueling years, the demarcation involved celestial navigation of more than 300 miles of wilderness while transporting a delicate 6-foot-long telescope, food and other supplies by horseback, Babcock said.

Mason and Dixon were British surveyors hired to settle a dispute between two powerful families: the Penns of Pennsylvania and the Calverts of Maryland. The Calverts claimed land extending north to Philadelphia, while the Penns asserted ownership south into Maryland.

After Mason and Dixon gauged the southernmost point in Philadelphia, they traveled due west to Embreeville, Pa., to put themselves directly above the disputed Delmarva Peninsula.

They matched the Philadelphia latitude and traveled 15 miles due south, putting the first marker of the Mason-Dixon Line in what is now White Clay Creek State Park in Newark, Del.