This mark was placed on the Colorado line as surveyed by Darling in 1868, but 1 mile 45 chains east of his terminal mark. From this point the line was run northward to the Wyoming line, a measured distance of 276 miles 51.66 chains. It was expected that this line would intersect the south boundary of Wyoming about 30 chains west of the 261st mile mark, but the line as run was nearly 1 mile farther west (262 miles 28.58 chains). A sandstone block 30 by 20 by 6 inches was set 18 inches in the ground at this point, marked "WYO" on the northeast, "COL 32° W L" on the southeast, and "UTAH 41, N L" on the southwest face.

The Colorado-Utah line was retraced in 1885 and re-marked with stone or cedar posts from the south end as far north as milepost 209. Between mileposts 81 and 89 the line was found to diverge toward the west 7° 10′, an error which at least in part accounts for the failure to close as expected on the Wyoming line. The initial mark of this line was thus described in 1885: A stone 7 feet by 12 by 6 inches set 3 feet in the ground, and marked on the northeast face "COLO 37° N L," on the southeast "N MEX 32° W L," on the southwest “ARIZONA,” and on the northwest "UTAH 1875." This mark is deserving of more than passing notice, as it is the only one in the United States that is the common corner of four States.

Between the 100th and 110th miles the positions of two boundary marks were determined by the Coast and Geodetic Survey 53 in 1893— one in latitude 38° 27′ 46.7", longitude 109° 03′ 34.1", and the other in latitude 38° 33′ 57.0′′, longitude 109° 03′ 34.2′′. These longitudes show that the line in this locality is nearly half a mile west of its statute position.

NEW MEXICO

The original area of New Mexico was taken in part from the region transferred by Mexico to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and in part from the territory ceded by Texas. (See pp. 37, 171, figs. 14 and 22, pl. 6.) The act of Congress of September 9, 1850, fixing the northern boundary of the State of Texas west of the 103d meridian and providing for the payment of $10,000,000 to that State for land to be ceded to the United States, provided also for the creation of the Territory of New Mexico, when the transaction with Texas was completed. The formation of this Territory was announced by presidential proclamation of December 13, 1850.

The boundaries fixed in the act of 1850 were thus described: 54

That all that portion of the territory of the United States bounded as follows: Beginning at a point in the Colorado River, where the boundary line with the Republic of Mexico crosses the same; thence eastwardly with the said

58 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Pub. 19, p. 100, 1914. 549 Stat. L. 447.

boundary line to the Rio Grande; thence following the main channel of said river to the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence east with said degree to its intersection with the one hundred and third degree of longitude west of Greenwich; thence north with said degree of longitude to the parallel of thirty-eighth degree of north latitude; thence west with said parallel to the summit of the Sierra Madre; thence south with the crest of said mountains to the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude; thence west with said parallel to its intersection with the boundary line of the State of California; thence with said boundary line to the place of beginning-be, and the same is hereby, erected into a temporary government by the name of the Territory of New Mexico.

FIGURE 22.-Historical diagram of New Mexico

There has been considerable uncertainty as to what mountain range was intended for the west boundary of New Mexico and the east boundary of Utah between latitudes 37° and 38° as fixed by the acts of 1850. The name Sierra Madre used in the New Mexico act is one given to many widely separated mountain groups. Emory 55 refers to Sierra Madre as a general name for the mountains along the Continental Divide. On some old maps the name is given to the mountains between 37° and 38° next east of the Rio Grande. This group is now officially designated as a part of the Rocky Mountain system. On other old maps the mountains west of the Rio Grande between 37° and 38° are called Sierra Madre.

55 Emory, W. H., Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey, vol. 1, p. 40, 1857.

267201 0-53-16

These are now known as the San Juan Mountains and are a part of the Continental Divide.

On the Melish map of 1818 the Mexican State of New Mexico is shown as extending north to latitude 38° and including the Rio Grande Basin. The Carey and Lea map of 1822 gives the boundaries of New Mexico between latitudes 32° and 38° as irregular lines including the Rio Grande Basin. The Tanner map of 1846 of the United States of Mexico shows the western line of New Mexico as extending to about 107° 30′ between latitudes 37° and 38° and including the drainage tributary to the Rio Grande. The Disturnell map of 1847, referred to in the treaty of 1848 with Mexico, shows New Mexico as extending north to latitude 40° and west to longitude 109°, including the Rio Grande Basin. A map of New Mexico compiled by Second Lieut. John C. Parke, published in 1851, shows the Rocky Mountain Range (referred to in the Utah act of 1850) between 37° and 38° as east of the Rio Grande. An undated map by "E. Gilman, draftsman," printed at "P. S. Duval's Steam Lith. Press, Phila.," probably published between 1849 and 1853, shows the boundary of New Mexico between 37° and 38° at about longitude 108° and names the mountains Sierra Madre.

On an official map published by the War Department in 1859 entitled “Territory and Military Department of New Mexico, compiled in the Bureau of Top'l Engrs." the New Mexico boundary between 37° and 38° is plainly indicated as following the Continental Divide, west of the Rio Grande. On most other maps published between 1850 and 1860 the location of the New Mexico boundary is not indicated.

In fixing the summit of the Rocky Mountains as the eastern boundary of the Territory of Utah in the act of 1850, the lawmakers probably assumed that the main range of the Rocky Mountains followed the Continental Divide through what was then an unexplored area.

The Rio Grande is a stream of great importance to New Mexico, and the only apparent reason for assigning to the Territory of New Mexico land north of latitude 37° was to give it control of the Rio Grande Basin. The Republic of Texas claimed an area as far west as the Rio Grande and from its source to the 42d parallel. The area north of the 32d parallel and west of the 103d meridian was sold by Texas to the United States in 1850, and it would seem logical to give the Rio Grande Basin, which is all south of the 38th parallel, to New Mexico. (See fig. 22.)

Mr. L. R. Hafen, historian, department of history, Colorado State Historical and Natural History Society, in a letter of December 1, 1924, wrote as follows:

The San Luis Valley (through which the Rio Grande flows) was actually administered as a part of New Mexico from 1850 to 1861. The governor and superintendent of Indian affairs reports on this area. In his report of September 1, 1854, Governor Merriwether says that the Utahs of New Mexico inhabit "all the northern tributaries of the Rio Grande which lie in New Mexico and north of the 37th parallel of latitude" (33d Cong., 2d sess., H. Ex. Doc. 1, Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Secretary of the Interior). In 1860 the superintendent in New Mexico reports that Agent Head has been placed in charge of the Tabahuaches band of Utahs and his agency located on the Conejos (west of the Rio Grande and north of 37°).

Fort Massachusetts, established in 1852 in the San Luis Valley, was under the jurisdiction of the Department of New Mexico. When Gunnison and Beckwith went through there in 1853 they spoke of the fort as being in New Mexico. G. H. Heap, accompanying Beale's expedition of the same year, speaks of the territory about Fort Massachusetts as the most fertile portion of New Mexico. During the fifties a number of towns were founded in the San Luis Valley and were governed as parts of Taos County.

The national census of 1860 lists the towns of Costilla, Conejos, and others in San Luis Valley as parts of Taos County, New Mex."

This territory was enlarged on August 4, 1854, by the addition of the Gadsden Purchase 57 and reduced by the formation of Colorado Territory in 1861 (p. 224) and Arizona Territory in 1863 (p. 233). The boundaries as thus changed are the same as those of the present State of New Mexico and are thus described: Beginning at the point of intersection of the 103d meridian of longitude west of Greenwich with the 37th parallel of latitude; running thence south to its point of intersection with the 32d parallel of latitude; thence west on this parallel to its intersection with the Rio Grande; thence southerly down the main channel of the Rio Grande as it was September 9, 1850, to its point of intersection with the boundary line between the United States and Mexico; thence with this boundary to its intersection with the 32d meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence north along this meridian to the 37th parallel of latitude, and east along that parallel to the place of beginning.

The enabling act for the admission of New Mexico to the Union, dated June 16, 1906, included also provisions for the admission of Oklahoma and Arizona, the boundaries of each to be "as at present described." 58 Further provisions for the admission of New Mexico were made by the act of June 20, 1910,59 and by the joint resolution of August 21, 1911,60 which required the acceptance of the Texas-New Mexico boundary line as described in the joint resolution of February 16, 1911 (p. 175). The proclamation by the President declaring New Mexico's admission to statehood in effect was dated January 6, 1912.

56 See Colorado Mag., May, 1926, p. 46, for article by Mr. Hafen containing the results of his studies of this question.

57 10 Stat. L. 575.

58 34 Stat. L., pt. 1, 267.

59 36 Stat. L., pt. 1, 557.

60 37 Stat. L., pt. 1, 39.

For reference to the New Mexico-Oklahoma line see page 217; the New Mexico-Texas line, page 175; the New Mexico-Colorado line, pages 224-225.

From the south end of the Oklahoma-New Mexico boundary line there is a jog in the New Mexico east line of about 2.1 miles westward along the Texas north line to longitude 103° 02′ 28.28′′ (North American datum).

The line between New Mexico and Arizona was surveyed in 1875 under the direction of the General Land Office on a meridian determined by reference to a peak named The Needles, located by the Wheeler Survey in 1874, the latitude and longitude of which were

225) 1 mile 45 chains east of the mark established by him for the southwest corof that State. The corner established in 1875 is a sandstone post 7 feet by 12 inches by 6 inches, set 3 feet in the ground (see p. 224) and surrounded by a pile of stone. From this point the line was extended south with marks at mile intervals

(most of them small stones inscribed "ARIZ" on the west side and "N MEX" on the east) a measured distance of 390 miles 48.31 chains to an intersection with the United States and Mexico boundary line. This intersection was marked by the 1891-1896 Mexican boundary survey with monument No. 71, the position of which is given as latitude 31° 19' 56.35", longitude 109° 02' 56.82" (approximate North American datum).

For a description of the south boundary see pages 39, 175–176. (See fig. 23.)

Suit was instituted in the United States Supreme Court in the October term, 1920, by New Mexico against Texas to have the boundary between the two States south of latitude 32° fixed at the mid-channel of the Rio Grande as it flowed in 1850, when New Mexico was made a Territory, the claim being made by New

The position given in Tables of geographic positions from data gathered by parties of the U. S. Geog. Surveys W. 100th Mer., p. 32, 1885, is latitude 36° 41′ 28.0", longitude 108° 50′ 18.1".