[PW] Re: Texas Boundaries

[Hadden, Robert L ERDC-TEC-VA]

	This is also covered and updated in the US Geological Survey's
Bulletin 1212:
	Bulletin Report Number 1212; Title Boundaries of the United States
and the several states; Language ENGLISH; Author(s) Van Zandt, Franklin K.;
Year 1966; USGS Library Call Number (200) E no.1212; Physical description 291
p., 1 folded leaf of plates :ill., maps (1 col.) ;23 cm.  
	In this bulleting, there are an interesting number of stories about
state boundaries, and how and when they were established and surveyed and
marked. This is an excellent reference source and intermittent read, that
regretfully has not been scanned and made available online yet. One is about
the state boundary survey that was marked by blazing the trees as they went
along, and all their work was destroyed in a later forest fire that also
"blazed" the trees.
	See the "Publications Warehouse" of the USGS at:
http://infotrek.er.usgs.gov/pubs/

Lee

R. Lee Hadden
Geospatial Information Library (GIL)
Topographic Engineering Center
ATTN: CEERD-TO-I (Hadden)
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
(703) 428-9206
Robert.L.Hadden at erdc.usace.army.mil

See some of my writings, both online and on paper, at my author page at:
http://www.librarything.com/author/haddenrobertlee

-----Original Message-----
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:07:03 -0500
From: John Sleasman <johnsleasman at gmail.com>
Subject: [PW] Re: Texas Geography Question [was: Texas Flag Question]
To: list at project-wombat.org
Message-ID: <459D5057.4060507 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

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_December
2006.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


Message: 8
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 21:52:18 -0600
From: Dennis McClendon <dmcclendon at rcn.com>
Subject: [PW] Re: Project-Wombat-FM Digest, Vol 13, Issue 3
To: list at project-wombat.org
Cc: nichael at sover.net
Message-ID: <78F3806F-3BCF-4B42-9C77-28AE0CE436C2 at rcn.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

> New Mexico appears
> to "intrude" into Oklahoma by about a mile along the northern stretch
> of the border

As best as I can determine from "Boundaries, Areas, Geographic  
Centers and Altitudes of the United States and the Several States,"  
by Edward M. Douglas, Geological Survey Bulletin 817, U.S. Government  
Printing Office, 1930), the Texas-New Mexico line was supposed to  
have been the 103rd meridian, but the Clark survey of that boundary  
in 1859-60 was inaccurate, and the north end was placed at  
103-02-28.28.  A 1911 joint resolution of Congress declared the Clark  
line the official boundary.  When the "Public Land Strip" (Oklahoma  
panhandle) was included in the Territory of Oklahoma, its western  
edge was simply specified as the New Mexico boundary.  That was  
accepted as the Cimarron meridian (103-00-06.78) rather than the  
Clark line, which governed only the Texas-New Mexico line.

This publication gives the difference as "about 2.1 miles."


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