Mississippi River, on the north by a parallel through the mouth of the Yazoo River, on the east by the Chattahoochee River, and on the south by the 31st parallel of north latitude. This area was subsquently enlarged so as to include the whole of what is now Mississippi and Alabama and a strip along the gulf coast, which was at that time claimed by Spain. In 1817 the Territory was divided, and the eastern portion was made into Alabama Territory. Subsequently the two Territories were admitted as States.

LOUISIANA, THE AREAS FORMERLY BELONGING TO MEXICO, AND

THE OREGON REGION

The Louisiana Purchase was effected in 1803. In 1804 the region thus obtained was divided into two parts; the southern part was organized as Orleans Territory, and the remainder was called the District of Louisiana. The State of Louisiana, comprising most of the Territory of Orleans, was admitted to the Union in 1812. In the same year it was enlarged by the addition of the area lying between the Mississippi and Pearl Rivers, in the southeastern part, and the name of the District of Louisiana was changed to the Territory of Missouri. (See fig. 27.) In 1819 Arkansaw Territory was created, and in 1836 it was admitted as a State. (The State name was spelled with an "s" in place of the final "w.")

The Arrowsmith Map of 1814 (fig. 14) shows the extent of the cartographic knowledge of the area covered by the conterminous 48 States previous to the establishment of boundaries of the Western and Midwestern States.

In 1821 the State of Missouri was formed from another part of the Territory of Missouri, and in 1836 the boundaries of the State were extended to their present limits. In 1834 the part of this Territory lying north of the State of Missouri and east of the Missouri and White Earth Rivers was attached to the Territory of Michigan. (See fig. 31.) In 1836 this portion became part of the Wisconsin Territory. In 1838 it became part of the Territory of Iowa. In 1846 the State of Iowa was created, and in 1849 the remainder of the Iowa Territory was organized as the Territory of Minnesota. Minnesota was admitted as a State on May 11, 1858, with its present boundaries.

Indian Territory (unorganized) was set apart by act of June 30, 1834, and described as follows (4 Stat. L. 729, 733; see fig. 36):

all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi, and not within the States of Missouri and Louisiana, or the Territory of Arkansas shall be taken and deemed to be Indian country. Apparently this covered a large part of the area previously designated Territory of Missouri, but for

51

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND THE CHANGES MADE THEREIN

judicial control the same act restricted the area to that commonly known as Indian Territory and bounded as follows: On the north by the north line of lands assigned to the Osage tribe of Indians, produced east to the State of Missouri; on the west by the Mexican possessions (100th meridian); on the south by the Red River; and on the east by the line of the Territory of Arkansas and the State of Missouri (Royce, 1899).

While the cessions by the States and the Louisiana region were being subdivided, Texas was admitted to the Union, and by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase the United States acquired from Mexico the area west of the northern part of Texas and south of the 42d parallel. In the same period the northern boundary had been established on the 49th parallel to the Pacific Ocean.

Out of the great western region thus acquired were carved the following Territories:56

The Territory of Oregon, formed in 1848, extended from lat 49° N. southward to lat 42° and from the Pacific Ocean east to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. (See fig. 43.)

California was admitted as a State in 1850 with the same limits which it possesses at present.

The Territory of Utah, formed in 1850 (see fig. 45), extended from the 42d parallel southward to the 37th and from the California boundary line eastward to the Rocky Mountains.

The Territory of New Mexico comprised all the country lying south of Utah to the boundary lines of Texas and Mexico and from the California boundary eastward to the boundary of Texas. (See fig. 47.)

The Territory of Nebraska, formed from Missouri Territory in 1854, comprised the country from the 49th parallel to the 40th and from the Missouri and White Earth Rivers westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. (See fig. 35.)

The Territory of Kansas, formed by the same act as Nebraska, comprised the country extending from Missouri westward to the boundary of New Mexico and Utah and from the south boundary of Nebraska to the 37th parallel.

The Territory of Washington was formed in 1853 from a part of Oregon, its southern boundary being the

56 For an outline of historical events relating to the organization of States west of the Mississippi and the settlement of their boundaries, see Higgins (1923, p. 397-455). For titles of manuscripts and published papers relating to the Territories, see Carnegie Inst. Washington (1911).

54

BOUNDARIES OF THE

UNITED STATES AND THE SEVERAL STATES

Columbia River and the 46th parallel, and its east line being the summit of the Rocky Mountains. (See fig. 43.) Oregon was admitted as a State in 1859, with its boundaries as they are now. The portion cut off from Oregon Territory was placed under the Territorial government of Washington.

The Territory of Dakota, formed in 1861, comprised all that region included in the present States of North Dakota and South Dakota and thence westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. (See fig. 34.)

The Territory of Nevada was organized from the western part of the Territory of Utah in 1861. (See fig. 45.) As originally constituted, its eastern line was the 39th meridian west from Washington, and its southern boundary was the 37th parallel. It was admitted as a State in 1864, when its eastern boundary was made the 38th meridian (approximately 115°03' west from Greenwich). In 1866, by act of Congress, the eastern boundary was moved 1° still farther east and placed upon the 37th meridian west from Washington, and the triangular portion contained between the former southern boundary, the boundary of California, the Colorado River, and the 37th meridian was added, thus giving the State its present limits.

The Territory of Colorado was formed in 1861, with the limits of the present State. It was admitted as a State in 1876.

The Territory of Arizona, formed in 1863, included that part of New Mexico lying west of the 32d meridian. west of Washington.

The Territory of Idaho was formed in 1863 from parts of Dakota and Washington Territories. As originally constituted it included the area lying east of the present eastern limits of Oregon and Washington to the 27th meridian west of Washington. Its southern boundary was the northern boundary of Colorado and Utah-that is, the 41st and 42d parallels of latitude. (See fig. 44.) From this Territory was detached in 1864 the Territory of Montana, having nearly the limits of the present State, and in 1868 the Territory of Wyoming; these changes reduced Idaho to its present dimensions.

The Territory of Oklahoma, organized in 1890 from a part of the Indian Territory and the public-land strip north of Texas, when admitted as a State in 1907 included the Indian Territory also. (See fig. 36.)

Nearly all boundaries of States west of the Mississippi, as well as those of many Central and Southern States, were surveyed under the direction of the Gen

eral Land Office. Notes of all such surveys and plats for most of them are now on file in the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, or in the Cartographic Records Division, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C. Many of the field notes are in excellent form, in books especially prepared for them, and are illustrated by photographs or sketches. Other notes are in books of field notes with the regular township surveys. Many resurveys or retracements of short parts of boundary lines have been made, and numerous corners have been reestablished in connection with the regular surveys of the public lands, which are not mentioned in the foregoing pages but are noted in the records of the General Land Office.

The notes and plates are open to public inspection and are indexed so that reference to them is easy; also, copies are supplied to anyone on payment of nominal fees.

Historical diagrams showing changes in State or national boundaries are to be found in many publicaitons, a few of which are listed below:

Faris, J. T., 1926, The romance of the boundaries: New York, Harper & Bros. This book contains a bibliography of boundary references with 138 entries.

Lamberton, R. H., 1884, An historical atlas from the dawn of history to the present time: 7th ed., New York, Townsend MacCoun. MacCoun, Townsend, 1901, An historical geography of the United States: Revised ed., New York, Silver, Burdett & Co.

Mowry, W. A., 1902, The territorial growth of the United States: New York, Silver, Burdett & Co.

Stocking, S. W., 1874, Areas and political divisions of the United States, with map, in Statistical atlas of the United States: Bureau of the Census, Washington.

U.S. Bureau of Statistics, Monthly summary of commerce and finance of the United States for August 1902.

State boundary surveys by the General Land Office are related to the surveys of the public lands under the rectangular system. The public land surveys are based on a system of principal meridians and base lines intersecting at right angles at an initial point (figs. 15, 16). The geodetic position of this point is determined. Surveys dependent on a principal meridian often, but not always, extend to the State line. Details of the rectangular system are given in the Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1973, of the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior.

PAYMENTS TO THE STATES

At the last session of the Twenty-second Congress an act was passed "to appropriate for a limited time the proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the United States and for granting lands to certain States," but it was not approved by President Jackson who, under date of December 4, 1833, in a long message to the Twenty-third Congress (see U.S. 53d Cong., 1896,

2d sess., H. Doc. 210, pt. 3, p. 56-69), set forth his reasons for withholding his signature. In that message he gave an excellent historical account of the State cessions by which the public lands had been in part acquired.

A somewhat similar act (5 Stat. L 55) approved June 23, 1836, by President Van Buren, directed that all money in the Treasury on January 1, 1837, in excess of $5 million be divided among the States in proportion to the number of their Representatives in Congress, to be paid in quarterly installments and to be returned to the United States when required by Congress. Three installments were paid, amounting in all to $28,101,644.91. Payment of the fourth installment was postponed indefinitely by act of October 2, 1837. No part of these payments has ever been returned by the States.

Other payments to States from the proceeds of land sales were authorized by act of September 4, 1841 (5 Stat. L. 453), but were discontinued by act of August 30, 1842 (5 Stat. L. 567).

The first charter that related to the area forming the present State of Maine (fig. 4) was that granted by Henry IV of France to Pierre du Gast, Sieur de Monts, in 1603, known as the charter of Acadia; it embraced the whole of North America between the 40th and 46th degrees of north latitude. Under this charter several exploring expeditions along the coast were made in 1604, 1605, and 1606; and in 1606 it was decided to make a permanent settlement at Port Royal, now Annapolis, Nova Scotia. No attempts were made under this charter to plant colonies within the limits of the present State of Maine.

By the first charter of Virginia (see p. 92), granted by James I in 1606, the lands along the coast of North America between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude were given to two companies, to one of which, the Plymouth Company, was assigned that part of North America including the coast of New England. The first colony in Maine was planted on the peninsula of Sabino, at the mouth of the Kennebec River, now Hunnewell Point, on August 19, 1607, by George Popham. The colonists returned to England in the autumn of 1608.

ST For a condensed historical description of the boundaries of the United States, see Encyclopedia Americana (1920, v. 4, p. 329-342). This article contains a bibliography on boundaries comprising several hundred entries. 38 A general discussion of the boundaries of the New England States is given by Cushing (1920). For reference to early voyages of the Northmen to Iceland, Greenland, and the New England coast about the year 1000, see Preble (1917, p. 160-167); Kohl (1869, v. 1, chap. 2); Gray (1931).

55

BOUNDARY LINES OF THE STATES MAINE

James I, in 1620, granted a charter to the Plymouth Company, in which may be found the following words (Thrope, 1909, v. 6, p. 1829):

Wee therefore, Do grant, ordaine and establish, that all that Circuit, Continent, Precincts, and Limitts in America, lying and being in Breadth from Fourty Degrees of Northerly Latitude, from the Equnoctiall Line, to Forty-eight Degrees of the said Northerly Latitude, and in length by all the Breadth aforesaid throughout the Maine Land, from Sea to Sea, with all the Seas, Rivers, Islands, Creekes, Inletts, Ports, and Havens, within the Degrees, Precincts, and Limitts of the said Latitude and Longitude, shall be the Limitts, and Bounds, and Precincts of the second Collony: And to the End that the said Territoryes may forever hereafter be more particularly and certainly known and distinguished, our Will and Pleasure is, that the same shall from henceforth be nominated, termed, and called by the Name of NewEngland, in America.

William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, claimed that under a grant given in 1621 he was entitled to land on the coast of Maine which had been granted to the Plymouth Company, and by direction of James I that company issued a patent to him (Thorpe, 1909, v. 6, p. 1621)

for a tract of the maineland of New England, beginning at Saint Croix and from thence extending along the sea-coast to Pemaquid and the river Kennebeck.

The heirs of the Earl of Stirling sold that tract to the Duke of York in 1663.

In 1622 Capt. John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges obtained from the council of New England (Plymouth) a grant of lands lying between the Merrimack and Sagadahock (Kennebec) Rivers and extending back to the rivers and lakes of Canada. This tract was named the Province of Maine and included New Hampshire and the western part of Maine. Mason and Gorges, in 1629, by mutual consent divided their territory in two by Piscataqua River. That part east of this river was relinquished to Gorges, who called it Maine.

The charter of the Plymouth Company was surrendered to the King in the year 1635.

King Charles I, in 1639, granted a charter to Sir Ferdinando Gorges which virtually confirmed the patent given to him by the Plymouth Company in 1622. The following extract from that charter (Thorpe, 1909, v. 6, p. 1626) defines the boundaries:

All that Parte Purparte and Porcon of the Mayne Lande of New England aforesaid beginning att the entrance of Pascataway Harbor and soe to passe upp the same into the River of Newichewanocke and through the same unto the furthest heade thereof and from thence Northwestwards till one hundred and twenty miles bee finished and from Pascataway Harbor mouth aforesaid Northeastwards along the Sea Coasts to Sagadahocke and upp the River thereof to Kynybequy River and through the same into the heade thereof and into the Lande