Readings Show Four Corners Marker off by 2.5 Miles

[snopes]

Tourists who think they're putting a hand or foot in each of four states at the Four Corners area are apparently missing the mark - by about 2.5 miles.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090421/D97MHDT01.html

[Ravenhull]

I think the proper response should be... "D'oh!!"

Gotta wonder how much it would cost to correct this. That marker isn't small (and is probably unmovable), so a new one would have to be built, with roadways added to the mix.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Ravenhull

Gotta wonder how much it would cost to correct this. That marker isn't small (and is probably unmovable), so a new one would have to be built.

Nah, just update the current one to read: "Four Corners: Turn right, 2.5 miles"

[Eddylizard]

Oh what the heck, just move the borders to match the damn thing - it's got to be the easiest solution, and would anyone miss their 2.5 miles that they only just found out they owned?

[htonl]

According to commenters on the original Deseret News article - so take it with an appropriate pinch of salt - the article got it wrong, because it ignores the fact that the boundaries were defined according to the Washington Meridian (not Greenwich) and the actual error is only a few hundred feet.

[htonl]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Oh what the heck, just move the borders to match the damn thing - it's got to be the easiest solution, and would anyone miss their 2.5 miles that they only just found out they owned?

Well, evidently that is basically the solution. The first actual survey takes precedence over the theoretical boundary in law.

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Originally Posted by htonl

Well, evidently that is basically the solution. The first actual survey takes precedence over the theoretical boundary in law.

That was my first thought as well.

When the state, county or city was resurveying the our property some years ago for something. They could not find the benchmark on the neighbors land do to him burring it many year before. So they had to go back and resurvey every think back to other and new benchmarks. All the original surveys were found to be off by about 5 feet. We were notified of the problem and property definitions would be corrected to match the new survey and they well be available at city hall.

[Der Induktionator]

When I was little (Well, like 14 or so), my dad explained surveying to me. at least fairly general, since I hadn't had trig yet. I remember a story about how a housing development got surveyed, but due to a mistake, everything was shifted about 25 feet, so everybody's property line actually went through the neighbors living room, for the entire housing development.

I would guess this is just a funny story, though. (But you never know...)

[Ravenhull]

Originally Posted by Der Induktionator

When I was little (Well, like 14 or so), my dad explained surveying to me. at least fairly general, since I hadn't had trig yet. I remember a story about how a housing development got surveyed, but due to a mistake, everything was shifted about 25 feet, so everybody's property line actually went through the neighbors living room, for the entire housing development.

I would guess this is just a funny story, though. (But you never know...)

Is there a way to go and realign to the de-facto property lines in those caes?

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Originally Posted by Ravenhull

Is there a way to go and realign to the de-facto property lines in those caes?

As in my experience when everyone property line was 5 feet off. The government comes in and revises the legal definitions of the existing property line to those the of the new survey. Nothing changes other than the numbers on the piece of paper that defines your property lines.

[Ravenhull]

Originally Posted by Singing in the Drizzle

As in my experience when everyone property line was 5 feet off. The government comes in and revises the legal definitions of the existing property line to those the of the new survey. Nothing changes other than the numbers on the piece of paper that defines your property lines.

Well, that would be logical thing to do. My worry would be that the local buracracy was not using logic, an all to common occurance. Glad it worked out well in your example.

[Skeptic]

Originally Posted by Der Induktionator

When I was little (Well, like 14 or so), my dad explained surveying to me. at least fairly general, since I hadn't had trig yet. I remember a story about how a housing development got surveyed, but due to a mistake, everything was shifted about 25 feet, so everybody's property line actually went through the neighbors living room, for the entire housing development.

I would guess this is just a funny story, though. (But you never know...)

I'm not sure if it's an urban legend, but it is often said that there is a farm/building/house etc, that part of it is in Northern Ireland, and the remainder in the Republic. Personally, I'm skeptical. The border has been there since the 1920s. Lots of surveys have been done since then.

[lord_feldon]

If the building was built before the surveys, it would be possible. Changing an international boundary is much harder, I would think, than changing a property line, especially when there's little consequence to the building being in two countries. This building, along with several others on that stretch of the border, is split between the US and Canada.

[Mycroft]

Amongst other border anomolies, one former barracks was split between East and West Germany when the border was established in 1945 (I presume that it was subsequently demolished but for a time it was shared by both sets of border guards) and there are apparently restaurants which straddle the Dutch/Belgian border, and although there is no physical barriers, areas of the restaurant are covered by different laws.

On a more serious note the Egyptian/Israeli border was defined by one peace treaty as a line drawn on a map, rather than specific features on the ground, and the line was drawn with a blunt pencil on a large scale map, and ended up being several miles wide - the repercussions of that taking years to work out.

[surfcitydogdad]

I guess it's a good thing I didn't have time to visit the Four Corners Monument last year. DW and I went to Mesa Verde last year, so were close, but then had to head directly home instead of going there. Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted to go there and sit on the monument so I could say I had my ass in four different states at the same time.

Had I accomplished that feat, I'd have to do it all over again. There are so many other things to do around here, fascinating places to visit, I'll have to put Four Corners off my list until they figure out exactly where it actually should be. Then I will go sit on it! (Presuming it is as sittable as the current marker.)

[Ramblin' Dave]

There is (or at least was 20 years ago) a mall on the southern border of New Hampshire which, when it was built, was forced to chop off a substantial corner of one of the anchor stores because it turned out that corner was in Massachusetts, so everything displayed in that portion of the store would be subject to higher sales taxes.

I've never been to Four Corners (I always figured why bother when I've been to three of the states - all but Arizona - already), but I've heard it's an awful tourist trap anyhow.