first
the full excerpt from the bible p28
under
first mexican cession
as follows
the most difficult question that came before the 1849 mxus commission
for decision concerned the location & extent of the south boundary of
new mexico
here unfortunately the disturnell map left room for broad differences
of opinion
the town called paso
now named juarez
was located on the map more than half a degree too far north & nearly
2 degrees too far east
in the absence of the chief surveyor for the usa
the 3 other members of the commission agreed to accept the position
of the south boundary of new mexico as shown by the projection lines
on the map
namely lat 32d22m north
& to run a line in that latitude 3 degrees west from the rio grande &
thence north until a branch of the gila river was intersected
in accordance with this decision
a durable monument was erected on the bank of the rio grande
in nlat 32d22m
& the running of the line westward was begun
see fig47
after a degree & a half had been run
the chief surveyor for the usa arrived
& learned what had been done
& made a vigorous protest against this interpretation of the map
this protest caused the sudden stoppage of the work of running the
line
& the repudiation of the agreement by the usgovt
the usa claimed the boundary should be located with reference to the
town of paso
the only definite point for it named in the treaty
under this claim
according to later observations
the south boundary of new mexico would be placed at about nlat 31d52m
& it would extend west to wlong 109d30m
negotiations followed but no agreement had been reached before 1853
when the gadsden purchase made further discussion unnecessary
end of quote
& secondly
the deciphered text of the ghost historical marker near dona ana nm
as follows
bartlett garcia conde initial survey point
on 24 april 1851 john russell bartlett for the usa & pedro garcia
conde for the republic of mexico erected near here a monument
designating 32d 22m nlat on the rio grande as the initial point for
the official survey of usmx
after the gadsden purchase the boundary was moved south
end of text
& finally the report that my second & more focussed try to find this
durable but bogus & probably no longer existent marker yesterday
afternoon was again class e
but i will try again one last time today with the best available map
in hand
because it seems to me that the slight technical inaccuracy or
omission in the text of the historical marker was not enough to
warrant someone taking so much trouble to destroy it
there probably had to be a better reason
& the only other reason i can think of is that the local property
owner may have wanted to discourage visitors
& that is why i have decided not to suspend the try yet
but to try even harder one last time
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "m06079" <barbaria_longa@h...>
wrote:
> those of you who have been following the progress of mxus between
> 1848 & 1853 with us this past week may have noticed the passage on
> p28 in the bible
> under the heading of
> first mexican session
> which tells of an abortive first survey of the south boundary of
new
> mexico westward from the rio grande along latitude 32d22m
>
> this line is shown in fig 47 on p162 too
>
>
> well
> along my route from the university to the hot springs each night
> after reading & rereading this & related passages
> i had been passing an almost completely defaced new mexico
historical
> marker near the village of dona ana
>
> & since new mexico historical markers
> & defaced ones in particular
> are almost always worth a look
> i finally stopped on saturday to try to decipher this one
> & lo & behold
> it says something about the initial point of this very boundary
> survey being near that very place
> etc etc
>
> & tho it is unclear why someone so carefully obliterated the entire
> text of the historical marker almost beyond decipherment
> it may have been out of a concern for historical authenticity
> since the survey had after all been invalidated almost as soon as
it
> was begun in 1851
> & its correction finally obviated in 1853 by the gadsden purchase
>
> but anyway i scoured the right bank of the rio for about a mile
near
> there
> hoping against hope that i might find the actual relic
> since i realize erroneous rocks are routinely pulled rather than
> allowed to stand & cause further confusion
>
> & i will look again this afternoon even more carefully
> exactly where the topo shows this latitude crossing the river
> with a final careful beating of the bushes
> just in case the surveyors got that part exactly right
> & just in case the rock wasnt pulled after all
>
> but basically i think this report of a ghost memorial to a ghost
rock
> from an abortive 1851 mxus survey is already as complete as it will
> ever be