THE LOST BOUNDARY OF TEXAS 



By Marcus Baker, Cartographer, U. S. Geological Survey 



T 



"^HE law makes the lootli merid- 

 ian of west longitude the bound- 

 ary between Oklahoma and the 

 panhandle of Texas. Similarly the law 

 makes the 103d meridian the boundary 

 (in part) between New Mexico and 

 Texas. Recent government maps do 

 not so show these boundaries, but place 

 each one a little west of the meridian 

 with which, by law, it coincides. These 

 discrepancies have led to an inquiry as 

 to the cause and as to our present knowl- 

 edge of these boundaries. 



These and similar boundaries are 

 established as follows : First, Congress 

 enacts what the boundary shall be ; 

 second, the boundary is surveyed and 

 marked in conformity with the law, and, 

 third, the survey is confirmed. When 

 all this has been done, the marks set by 

 the surveyor become the boundary. 

 Even if subsequent surveys disclose in- 

 accuracies in the original survey, as it 

 invariably does, nevertheless the monu- 

 ments originally set, although inaccu- 

 rately, remain the boundary. Perma- 

 nence and certainty are of more moment 

 than refinements of accuracy. 



If the accuracy of a later and more 

 refined survey was a sufficient warrant 

 for changing a boundary once estab- 

 lished, the later survey would itself be 

 subject to like change when itself fol- 

 lowed by a survey of yet greater refine- 

 ment. Thus would result the intoler- 

 able nuisance and menace of a shifting 

 boundary. The rule and the reason, 

 therefore, unite in declaring that subse- 

 quent surveys are powerless to alter or 

 to fix boundaries. Boundaries become 

 established by mutual confirmation, such 

 confirmation being either formal or pre- 

 sumed from long, notorious, and undis- 

 puted acquiescence. It is not the sur- 



veying or marking done by the surveyor 

 which establishes a boundary, but the 

 acceptance and ratification of such sur- 

 vey by the parties. If neighbors dis- 

 pute about their line fence, a surveyor 

 is powerless to settle their dispute with- 

 out the consent of both. This power 

 to settle vests in the courts, which re- 

 ceive and weigh not only the testimou)^ 

 of the surveyor, but all other evidence 

 pertinent to the dispute. Neglect of 

 these obvious principles lies at the bot- 

 tom of much boundary contention. 



The boundary along the looth and 

 103d meridians originated in 1850. In 

 1835 Texas declared her independence 

 of Mexico, and on December 29, 1845, 

 was admitted to the Union. It then com- 

 prised parts of territory now included 

 in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, 

 Colorado, and Wyoming. In i S50 Texas 

 sold to the United States for $10,000,000 

 all her territory north of latitude 36° 30' 

 and west of the 103d meridian as far 

 south as latitude 32°. In the act of 

 Congress of September 9, 1850, effecting 

 this purchase, the boundary here con- 

 sidered first appears. That act recites : 



' ' The state of Texas will agree that 

 her boundary on the north shall com- 

 mence at the point at which the merid- 

 ian of one hundred degrees west from 

 Greenwich is intersected by the parallel 

 of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes 

 north latitude, and shall run from said 

 point due west to the meridian of one 

 hundred and three degrees west from. 

 Greenwich ; thence her boundary shall 

 run due south to the thirty-second de- 

 gree of north latitude ; thence on the 

 said parallel of thirty-two degrees of 

 north latitude to the Rio Bravo del 

 Norte." (See the line A B CD df the 

 accompanying figure.) 



