Four Corners marker 21/2 miles off? Too late

The Four Corners, a famous and popular tourist spot in the American Southwest, is and isn't where it should be. Confused? Read on.

Four Corners — the only place in the United States where four state boundaries come together — was first surveyed by the U.S. government in 1868, during the initial survey of Colorado's southern boundary line. Its intended location was an even 109 degrees west longitude and 37 degrees north latitude.

However, due to surveying errors, it didn't come out that way.

According to readings by the National Geodetic Survey, today's official marker sits at 109 02 42.62019 W longitude and 36 59 56.31532 N latitude.

That means the current monument marking the intersection of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona is approximately 2.5 miles west of where it should be.

According to three different Internet sites for distance calculations (including an FCC site and GPS visualizer) the readings were 2.493; 2.484; and 2.499 miles.

A member of the Utah Association of Geocachers in Price also came up with 2.5 miles by using two other Internet sites, Google Earth and the Great Circle Calculator. (Geocachers routinely rely on GPS data to find exact locations.)

The true location would be downhill to the east of U.S. 160 in Colorado and northeast of the San Juan River as it flows into New Mexico.

San Juan County surveyor David Bronson said of the present monument, "That's the accepted location."

"That's a long ways to be off," he acknowledged of the 2.5-mile discrepancy, but stressed once it was set, it remained.

Sam Cantrell, assistant San Juan County surveyor, said he understands the original marker could not be found by a later surveyor in 1875 and it ended up a mile to the east until 1899 when a third survey crew rediscovered the original marker. That's where it has remained ever since, but for 24 years it may have been a mile closer to the intended location.

Both men believe it's pretty amazing that surveyors of that day were as accurate as they were, given the crude equipment of the era.

What's the effect of this 2.5 mile variance?

Wikipedia incorrectly reports that sometime in the past this error became an issue and so the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the current location had become the standard over time and so it should be recognized as the official boundary between the four states.

No original source could be found for that Supreme Court reference. In fact, a 2007 article in the Four Corners Free Press states that the Supreme Court ruling simply reaffirmed the current Navajo-Ute tribal boundary involving a 300-foot discrepancy, not the Four Corners monument itself.