COUNTY BOUNDARIES OF COLORADO 



199 



territory a few months before the act was passed. The eighth guide meri- 

 dian, passing through the town of Pueblo, gives the location to ranges in 

 the whole state, save the southwest corner. And the base line of the 

 fortieth parallel is used over the same area. In the southwest, and in 

 later years, the New Mexico principal meridian replaces the eighth guide 

 of the eastern slope. The six eastern counties were all defined with 

 reference to these base and range lines, in existence or projected. 



L anmer 



We/c/ 



Arapahoe 



Doua/a-5 



El Pc 



'aiSO 



Puehio 



Arapahoe 

 Cheyenne Qe^ierve^ 



Huerfano 



Map II. — 1861 — First Legislative Assembly. 



The central counties made much use of the Snowy Range, which the 

 courts later determined to mean the continental divide when not further 

 qualified by a local name, as Mosquito or Sangre de Christo or La Plata 

 range. ^ The western counties, beyond the region of accurate survey 

 or actual settlement, were open to confusion in the case of the Lake- 



» This ruling was made in a suit in which Grand county endeavored to establish the Medicine Bow 

 range as its eastern boundary, which was by definition the "Snowy Range" (Grand County v. Larimer Co. 

 Colorado Supreme Court Reports, Vol. IX, p. 268, April term, 1886). In the following year the legislature 

 provided that disputed county boundaries should be determined and surveyed by the state engineer (Act of 

 April 4, 1887, Sess. Laws, 1887, p. 288). 



