Four Corners Monument in da wrong place (legally, moving)

[sjbasin]

Oops. The Four Corners Monument is apparently 2-1/2 miles off center. Someone made a mistake in 1868 while surveying Colorado's southern border and the error was never corrected. And it sounds like no one plans on correcting it. I'm thinking that they need to jack that thing out of the ground and drag it to the proper coordinates. It's just silly to leave it in the wrong place now that they know it's wrong.

[catman]

Wow, that's a rather big error. I would think they would want to correct it. So I take it that the state lines are wrong too? That would cause a lot of trouble for property owners ("I'm in WHAT state?").

[Jaybee]

I'm a geography type who's always been fascinated with maps. Spent a career dealing with them too, from cartography to surveying to city planning. I can tell you that an error of that magnitude is astonishing, even given 19th century cadastral surveying instruments.

I'd really like to read more about this. Do you have any references? My wife and I visited the site in 2007-paid the obligatory $3.00 each to the Native American's whose land the impressive four corners monument occupies. We bought some gifts the natives were peddling from rudimentary "booths" set up adjacent to the monument. In retrospect, I wish I'd have placed my GPS on the intersection and photo'd the display. Oh well.

Could the decision not to adjust (assuming it's incorrect) be based, at least partly, on reluctance to move it off a reservation?

[BrianH]

Readings show Four Corners marker off by 2.5 miles - US and Canada- msnbc.com


You might be right about them not wanting to move it off a reservation JayBee but they may be saying theyre not gonna move it because I am sure they are shell shocked and as of right now have no idea. I am almost certain they did not budget to move the thing and have tonnes of advertising up with its location.

[desert sun]

they should move it since its wrong,it defeats the purpose

[GregW]

Link to source of your information please.

[sjbasin]

Ahhhhh. Now it appears that we can rest easy. It's right where it's supposed to be. We think.

FOUR CORNERS - Lovers of faraway places, faraway facts or faraway family vacations can all rest easy now.



"The Four Corners Monument that everybody goes and visits is exactly where it should be," said Randy Zanon, chief cadastral surveyor for Colorado's Bureau of Land Management. "That monument was set in 1875, it has been adopted by all four states, it's been decreed by the Supreme Court in 1925 that that is the monument of the Four Corners."

9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | Four Corners is in the correct spot, mostly (http://www.9news.com/seenon9news/article.aspx?storyid=114221&catid=509 - broken link)

[Poncho_NM]

Well, in 1868 surveyor equipment was not as accurate as it is today. It probably wasn't until recently, the last 40 years or so, that there was an ability to locate the position more accurately...


Rich

[jazzlover]

With modern Global Positioning technology able to locate any point on the earth to up to centimeter accuracy, finding exactly WHERE you are on the planet is now easy. Using that technology, there is hardly a single section corner in the country that is exactly where it is "supposed" to be. But, those points are exactly where they LEGALLY have been established to be, so they probably aren't moving--and the Four Corners monument is no exception. Yes, there is a US Supreme Court ruling that established the current Colorado/New Mexico border, and there is a significant jog in the supposedly "straight" state line southeast of Pagosa Springs as a result of that ruling.

This whole deal is a big ho-hum for the surveying and geographical community. They have known that Four Corners was not a "geographically" accurate point for years. Also, no surprise that it would be "off" that much, either.

[AlisonL]

The news said if they moved it, it would still be on NA land. I say leave it where it is.

I would not rely on our GPS to find anything. Half the streets in NM don't even show up on it, so it looks like we are driving in the desert most of the time. We took it out of the car, and its not even a year old.