Posted on 04/22/2009 4:42:27 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
One of America's most popular tourist destinations has been revealed to be a fake - well, almost - The Four Corners Monument, which claims to be the only spot in the USA where visitors can stand in four separate states, was built in the wrong place...
If you thought you were standing in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico at the same time, think again. The famous Four Corners Monument, which was said to mark the intersection of the four states, turns out to be located 3.2 kilometres west of the actual spot.
One of the most unique tourist destinations in the country, the monument has been a lucrative tourist trap since it was built 140 years ago. The current four corners monument is on land owned by the Navajo Nation and the nativeAmerican tribe has even built a visitor centre at the site -so this news will come as something of a blow to them.
Scientists from the National Geodetic Survey uncovered the mistake this week and revealed that the man employed to carry out the US Government's original survey of the intersection, in 1868, may have deliberately planted his marker at the wrong spot in order to avoid a tough walk through the desert.
Surveyors used satellite maps and GPS units to track down the right location. The monument, which should have been located at 37 degrees north latitude and 109 degrees west longitude is actually located at 36 59 56.31532 degrees north latitude and 109 02 42.62019 degrees west longitude. A steep, rocky hill nearby is the correct location.
But all is not lost for the famous state boundary attraction - experts have said that, since the monument was approved by the Government, it is legally the state boundary - regardless of geographic protocol.
Bill Case of the Utah Geological Survey said, "What is legal is political, not scientific, and it doesn't matter if you make a mistake.
"If all the states and the US Congress say the current Four Corners is the actual Four Corners, then that's that," added Mr Case.
I can't help feeling this may be a tough case (sorry) to win with the millions of tourists that haven't actually been standing in all four states at one time.
Federal officials say it's up to the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Indian Tribe to decide if they want to move the monument to the correct spot.
Interesting. I wish everything else in life were so cavalier about making mistakes. Maybe we should just give Canada and Mexico 2 1/2 miles of US land. Perhaps North Korea would move its border north a couple of miles. Typical bureaucratic crap.
Never been there. I only visit the very, very, mostest, uniquest places.
“What is legal is political, not scientific, and it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake”
Global warming?
They are just now catching up. This has been fairly well known since I was a youngster. That was back when the Grand Canyon was called “The Grand Gully”. It’s the difference between “official and “real”.
Been there. Guess I was standing in just New Mexico, not all four.
How is this current news? This has been known for ages. When we were there several years back we played with the GPS, knowing it was wrong, trying to find the actual point. Alas, off road.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. There are several state borders that are disputed.
As for moving it... The only way the Navajo Tribe will move it is if the government pays for the new “Visitor’s Center” and reimburses them for the old one.
Typical gubmint worker.
The more government pukes like this talk the more I want to become an anarchist.
The Texas-Oklahoma border has the same problem. Markers were put in the wrong places which gave Texas land which should have been in Oklahoma. Texas would have given it back because nobody wants part of Oklahoma except for the fact that there was oil on the disputed land. Oil won out and the thievin' Texans stole that land, too.
So Arizona is almost two miles wider on the east side than we thought it was? Will they have to move the inspection stations and truck scales on I-40 and I-10?
Can you blame them, though?
Global warming?
LOL. That's exactly what I was thinking.
Pay three dollars and you get admission to the only point where the boundaries of four US states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah) hit each other. If you are interested in geographical points like that and like taking the famous “standing-in-four-states-in-one-moment” shots, then this place is a must-go I have to admit.
http://www.travelamerica360.com/four-corners-monument.html
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