New Mexico has no chance whatsoever of getting the Texas boundary moved. None!
The statutory boundary is the 103rd meridian. This line was surveyed in 1859 by
John H. Clark as commissioner for Texas and the federal government. Both
parties officially accepted his work as the boundary. By the early 20th
century, it was well known that the line was a bit too far west. That is why
the Act of Congress of June 16, 1906, enabling the organization of a proposed
state in the New Mexico Territory, required its boundaries to be "as at present
described." In preparation for the actual admission of the State of New Mexico
to the Union, the Congress passed a joint resolution on February 16, 1911,
declaring that "these boundary lines as run and marked by John H. Clark in
1859-60 shall remain the true boundary lines of Texas and New Mexico." The
Congress also made provision for the boundary "as determined by Clark" to be
resurveyed and remarked before the admission of New Mexico. This was done by
commissioners representing the US and Texas in 1911.
When the Constitution for the proposed State of New Mexico was sent to Congress
for its acceptance, it contained a description of the eastern boundary as the
103rd meridian, with no reference to the Clark Line. Thus, the Congress passed
a joint resolution on August 21, 1911, in which it conditioned the admission of
New Mexico to the Union on the state's acceptance of the Texas boundary as
described in the joint resolution of February 16, 1911. After this was done,
New Mexico's admission was complete effective January 6, 1912.
This illustrates a universal principal of boundary demarcation: Once a survey
is done and the boundary that it marks upon the landscape is accepted by both
parties, that is the official boundary, regardless of how imperfect the survey
might later be found to be. It is the job of all future surveyors to recover
and replicate the original survey, not to try to improve upon it.
Old boundary lines that do come into controversy (such as CTRI currently) and
sometimes do get corrected are those where an imperfect line was unilaterally
surveyed without official acceptance by both parties.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "voit1" <voit1@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 9:19 AM
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Texas panhandle - 3 miles into New Mexico(?)
> I have recently read several articles about New Mexico's belief that
> the Texas panhandle encroaches into New Mexico's territory because of
> a faulty survey. There is little doubt that the state line is
> shifted to the west off the line of longitude...What chance does New
> Mexico have to get the line shifted east?