FIGURE 39.-Map showing the topography of an area now a part of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Surveyed and published by the Department of the Interior in 1873, under the direction of John Wesley Powell. The original is now in the Library of Congress.

150

BOUNDARIES OF THE

UNITED STATES AND THE SEVERAL STATES

Divide and north to the point where the divide intersected the parallel of 44°30', but left a triangular area of about 11⁄2 square miles west of long 34° W., south of lat 44°30' N., and east of the Continental Divide that still belonged to Dakota. This area was given to Montana by the act of 1873, which described it as follows (see fig. 23; 17 Stat. L. 464):

That all that portion of Dakota Territory lying west of the one hundred and eleventh meridian of longitude which, by an erroneous definition of the boundaries of said Territory by a former act of Congress, remains detached and distant from Dakota proper some two hundred miles, be, and the same is hereby, attached to the adjoining territory of Montana.

The act should have described the area as being west of the 34th meridian west of Washington instead of west of the 111th meridian, for the Greenwich meridian was not mentioned in the former act.

The enabling act (25 Stat. L. 676), which included also provisions for the admission of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington, fixed their boundaries "as at present described."

The presidential proclamation announcing the admission of Montana as a State was dated November 8, 1889.

The south boundary of Montana was surveyed and marked in 1879-80, under the General Land Office.

The land included in Yellowstone National Park was set aside previous to the admission of the State of Montana. The north boundary of the park lies about two miles within the State, as does a part of its west boundary. This overlap causes an unusual situation as the area is not included in any county. The census of 1970 gives the number of inhabitants as 64. The area is 269 square miles. The legal status is described by the term "Exclusive Legislative Jurisdiction" in which the Federal government has received all the authority of the State except the right to serve process resulting from activities which occurred off the land involved.

See Idaho, page 157, and Wyoming, page 145. That part of the west boundary between the crest of the Bitterroot Mountains and the Canadian border was surveyed and marked in 1898-99 by the U.S. Geological Survey. (For a detailed report of this work, see Goode, 1900.)

In the attempt to place the boundary on the 39th meridian west of Washington, the surveyor used an astronomic datum, with the initial point at Spokane.

He measured a five-mile base line along a tangent of the Northern Pacific Railroad east of the city and then triangulated across the panhandle of Idaho. The position of boundary post 12 of this line has been determined by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to be lat 48°52′33.48'' N., long 116°02′52.99" W., 1927 N.A.D. This position is some 600 feet east of the 39th meridian. (Goode, 1900.)

The remainder of the western boundary was surveyed and marked by stone or 3-inch round iron posts in 1904-6 under the General Land Office. The total measured length of the Idaho-Montana boundary line from the Canadian border to the Wyoming line is about 738 miles, of which the first 70.7 miles is the meridional line, the next 355 miles is along the crest of the Bitterroot Mountains, and the remaining 312 miles along the Continental Divide. The west boundary of the Yellowstone National Park crosses this line about 2% miles west of the Wyoming line.

For reference to the survey of the northern boundary, see page 21.

The survey of the east boundary of Montana on the 27th meridian west of Washington was undertaken in 1885; the initial position had been found by measurement from an astronomic station on the Northern Pacific Railway 6 miles 28.51 chains to the west, where an exchange of time signals had been made by telegraph. From the point thus found a random line was run south to the 45th parallel. The mark at the northeast corner of Wyoming on this parallel, as established in 1880, was reported to be 70.68 chains west of the 27th meridian as fixed by the random line. A point for the intersection of the 45th parallel and the 27th meridian (the southeast corner of Montana) was marked by a stone post. Both these corner marks were replaced in 1904 by 6-foot cut-stone posts. See page 145 for the geographic position of the Wyoming corner.

From the point marked as the southeast corner of Montana, the line was run north to the 49th-parallel boundary, a measured distance of 276 miles 27.80 chains. The Northern Pacific Railway was crossed at 133 miles 63 chains; the Yellowstone River, between mileposts 195 and 196; and the Missouri River, between mileposts 207 and 208. Most of the marks on this line were wooden posts, many of which have since been destroyed. The part from the 193d to the 218th milepost was retraced in 1901, and the posts were found to be poorly alined, varying as much as 50 minutes. to the east or west for a single mile.

The geographic position of the southeast corner of Montana is lat 44°59'53.19" N. and long 104°02'20.83" W. Farther north (at lat 47° 12'41.45" N.) there is an accurately located boundary mark, the longitude of which is 104°02'39.88" W. This mark is an old oak post. (Bowie, 1914, p. 93, 94.) The longitude of the in