[PW] Re: Texas Geography Question [was: Texas Flag Question]

[John Sleasman]

Nichael Cramer wrote:
> As a Yankee who spent several years in Texas, I hope someone can answer
> a question about a curious little feature of Texan geography that I've always
> wondered about, but never been able to find a good answer to.
>
> Looking at a map of the US, if one proceeds north along the eastern edge
> of New Mexico one will travel along next to the Texas Panhandle, and then
> along beside a narrow strip of Oklahoma before bumping into Colorado.
>   
Oh, there's a LOT about this buried in detail arguments of American 
history, including court cases, law suits between New Mexico and Texas, 
semi-settlements thereof, and ongoing controversy.

Underneath it is that in 1850, Texas officially ceded its original 
Mexican territorial boundaries beyond latitude 36-30 (the Missouri 
Compromise line) to the Federal government. The western line of the 
state was supposed to be at 103 degrees, and the New Mexico-Texas border 
got laid out where it is to demark the (Arizona) territory-state 
boundary. Except that the surveyor made a mistake. New Mexico-Oklahoma, 
finalized later, is on the correct line.

The next problem, of course, is that the enabling legislation for New 
Mexico Territory used the 103 terminology, which gave the eventual state 
of New Mexico a claim on that strip. Congress put some language about 
the "integrity of the existing border" in the state enabling act, but 
failed to define whether "existing" was the legal 103 marker, or the de 
facto west-of-103. Thereby setting off a series of disputes, court 
cases, etc. over the years. New Mexico usually loses those, but the 
arguments continue. A web search on various combinations of New Mexico, 
Texas, 103 meridian, disputes, conflict, etc. will tell you more than 
you want to know. Having worked "on assignment" in El Paso for a while, 
I can assure you that many people in western Texas are aware of the 
historic dispute, and New Mexico also makes sure that its citizens know 
that the issue isn't settled, viz. the following from 
http://newmexiken.com/archives/date/2003/09/03/ :
> SANTA FE, March 14, 2003) � New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands 
> Patrick H. Lyons accepts Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson’s 
> challenge to a duel on the New Mexico-Texas border.
>
> “Anytime, anywhere,” said Lyons. “We’ll settle this once and for all, 
> ’cause I never miss a shot.”
>
> Lyons is referring to a 144-year-old land dispute involving a 3-mile 
> wide, 320-mile long strip of land along the west Texas border that 
> technically belongs to New Mexico. An inaccurate survey by John H. 
> Clark in 1859 granted the land to Texas … and New Mexico has been 
> trying to get it back since the first state legislature convened in 1912.
>
> As recently as 1995, the New Mexico Legislature approved $100,000 in 
> the General Appropriation Act for the attorney general “to enter into 
> negotiations or litigation with both the state of Texas and the United 
> States congress to reestablish and remark the proper boundary between 
> Texas and New Mexico at its proper 103 meridian west.”
>
> The attorney general was also authorized to negotiate a monetary 
> settlement in lieu of the reestablishment of the boundary, if 
> necessary. The governor vetoed the appropriation.
>
> The time and place of the duel has yet to be determined. Assistant 
> Commissioner Jerry King will serve as Lyons’ second.
>
Another site that came up on a search was 
www.theamericansurveyor.com/PDF/TheAmericanSurveyor_Roeder-TX-NMLine_December2006.pdf 
, which is a reprint of an article in American Surveyor entitled 
"Perhaps the Most INCORRECT of Any Land Line" - which is a quote from a 
1905 Congressional report. That article should tell you more than you 
want to know about the background.

John Sleasman