The way I understand it is this: When the border along the 49th was first marked, it was as accurate as could be made with the technology available then. The Governments of Canada and the US later agreed that the border would be where the actual border was marked -- regardless of accuracy.

However: I found a story that said something along the lines of what you describe. The northern border of Washington State is the actual 49th parallel. If this were legally true (and it may be), then the land between the 49th and the US-Canadian border would be federal US land, but not Washington State. This would only occur if the 49th were actually south of the US-Canadian border -- and, around Point Roberts, I believe it is.

It might be fun to head down to the border, armed with a GPS, just to see.

If I can find a copy of a newspaper article dealing with a legal case based on the above issues, I will pass it along.

Doug

(Vancouver, BC)

----- Original Message -----

From: David Mark

To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 5:41 PM

Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] the abstract and the concrete

In Van Zandt's book on the boundaries of the United States, he states (p. 155) that the northern boundary of the state of Washington is "the boundary line between the United States and the British Possessions." In the Fraser Valley near Vancouver, the border on the ground is around 1/4 mile north of the 49th parallel. David dmark@... On Wed, 24 Oct 2001, Anton Sherwood wrote: > m donner wrote: > > searching today mainly for the southernmost point in oregon > > meaning the southernmost corner of the surveyed line, or what? > > i read once that the north boundary of Washington is, in some places, > hundreds of feet south of the north boundary of the United States, > because they are defined by separate surveys. sadly the article where i > saw this was on another subject entirely and contained no pointers to > further info. > > -- > Anton Sherwood > > > > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > >

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