Four Corners Off By 2.5 Miles!

The national marker identifying the the intersection of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona is in the wrong place

If you've ever made a pilgrimage to the Four Corners—the only spot where you can stand in four states at once in the U.S.—I've got some sour news: You were never there. The National Geodetic Survey has determined that the monument dedicated to where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah meet is 2 1/2 miles west of the actual point.

So instead of putting one limb in each state, you were simply flailing about somewhere in eastern Utah. Our condolences.

Meanwhile, some horny toad has been sitting on a patch of dirt just east of the crowds, waiting for his day in the sun. That day has come my friend—I hope you've ordered all the tacky souvenirs and fake-frontier billboards you'll need to capitalize on it.

As for you Four Corners visitors, there's only one thing to do: Find mom, dad, sis, bro, and grandma, pile back into the minivan/station wagon, and head back out to the real Four Corners. That, or get a life.

—Ted Alvarez

Four Corners marker is off by 2 1/2 miles (Denver Post)

Thanks, Jason

Image Credit: jakesmome

PRINT THIS PAGE EMAIL THIS PAGE RSS FEED

Digg Delicious Yahoo Facebook Reddit StumbleUpon Google Newsvine Facebook Twitter

READERS COMMENTS

[url=http://www.tnvrai.com/]Nike TN[/url]
[url=http://www.tnvrai.com/]Requin TN[/url]
[url=http://www.tnvrai.com/]TN Requin[/url]
[url=http://www.tnvrai.com/]Nike shox[/url]
[url=http://www.boykk.com]TN Requin[/url]
[url=http://www.boykk.com]Nike TN[/url]
[url=http://www.boykk.com]Nike TN Requin[/url]
[url=http://www.francetnpascher.com]TN Pas Cher [/url]
[url=http://www.francetnpascher.com]tn 2011[/url]
[url=http://www.francetnpascher.com]Tn foot locker[/url]

[url= http://www.sacamainfemmes.com/] Sac a main [/url]
[url= http://www.sacamainfemmes.com/ ] Sac a main femme [/url]
[url= http://www.sacamainfemmes.com/] sac a dos [/url]
[url= http://www.sacamainfemmes.com/] valise [/url]
[url= http://www.sacamainfemmes.com/] bagage �� main et maroquinerie en ligne - Gsell [/url]
[url= http://www.bbukk.com/] TN Nike [/url]
[url= http://www.bbukk.com/] TN Requin [/url]
[url= http://www.bbukk.com/] TN Pas Cher [/url]
[url= http://www.bbukk.com/] TN Air Max [/url]

Posted: May 09, 2012 tn pas che

All I can say is that Mr. Alvarez, the author of the article, seems like a bit of a prick. I think that is something we can all agree on.
Posted: Aug 22, 2011 Steve

Many people who travel to Four Corners monument are inquisitive about the lifestyle and cultures of these Native Americans. You could tour the visitor center and learn more about them. If you want a more hands-on experience, you could visit Monument Valley, which is close to the monument.
http://www.travelamerica360.com/four-corners-monument.html

Posted: Nov 22, 2010 jadesmith

The "true" point for the four corners monument? Right on the Brass cap. It's perfect. Not "off" by even a millimeter.
Posted: May 01, 2009 Mighty Moe

I had heard from other sources that the "4-corners" was off by 2 and 1/2 miles to the west of the actual point. From what I have heard, the Four Corners Monument is a Navajo tribe thing that is on Navajo tribal lands. Their lands encompass three of the sides where the four States come together. The fourth side, in Colorado, is on Ute Mountain Ute tribal lands. Sounds logical to me that the point is not directly on the POINT unless there was some sort of deal between the Navajo and Ute tribes.
Posted: May 01, 2009 Herm

Ummmm,,, maybe it's just me, but I thought this was humorous and was made more so by the over the top serious comments. I think the hormy toad would agree.
Posted: Apr 24, 2009 Chris

The monument is not "off". The idea that the National Geodetic Survey would comment to the position of state lines is inappropriate. They are not the agency qualified to determine boundary lines and should not comment on them. The surveyor that set the 4-corners monument in 1868 would have calculated his position using astronomical observations and according to the article was within 02'42" of Longitude and 0'04" of Latitude. But he was not using the same basis that we use today but even so extreme accuracy was not the intention of the early surveys. So this story should not be looked at as the 4-corners monument being "off" but rather should celebrate the ability of the old surveyors to navigate their way around an empty and harsh landscape with nothing but a transit, field books, pen and paper and their exceptional knowledge and education. Also, it�s important to understand that boundary lines are based on legal principals and not technical principals and the courts have long held that monuments, especially original monuments, are �king� for boundary locations.
Posted: Apr 22, 2009 Tom S.

The common boundaries of the four states that intersect at the four corners were laid down 110 years ago. Those are the legal boundaries. They will be the legal boundaries for the next 110 years and beyond.

IF it is correct that the state boundaries are off by a bit from where they were originally intended to be then those are the breaks.

The people who have visited the "four corners" and "stood in four states at once" have indeed done just that.

Posted: Apr 22, 2009 Pete H.

You guys ought to do some fact-checking before you blindly accept a single source. The Four Corners monument may be off by a little, but it's not off by two miles. That entire notion is based on a factual inaccuracy.

As far as I can tell, the original article was published by the Deseret News. That article states, "Its intended location was an even 109 degrees west longitude and 37 degrees north latitude." This is simply not true.

The monument was originally defined as being 32 degrees west of the (now-abolished) Washington Meridian. It had nothing to do with the Greenwich Meridian. As it turns out, "32 degrees west of Washington" is indeed a couple miles away from "109 degrees west of Greenwich".

So this whole thing is the result of some incorrect assumptions. See my webpage for more info:
http://tinyurl.com/4-corners-monument
Posted: Apr 21, 2009 Dale Sanderson