On Sun, 28 Oct 2001, Doug Murray for StockPhotosOnline.com wrote:
> 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.
That is correct as far as I know. But does not need a special agreement,
as I understand it under British common law, after a while the situation
on the ground take precedence over the wording of the original agreement.
> 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.
You misunderstood. Another BoundaryPoint person posted the claim that
there might be a gap, but I was citing Van Zandt as an authority that
there is no gap, the northern boundary of Washington was defined at time
of statehood to follow the US-British boundary (and NOT the 49th)
> It might be fun to head down to the border, armed with a GPS, just to see.
No need to. The Canadaian and US topographic maps have shown the border
well north of the 49th parallel at least since I was doing field work in
the Fraser Valley in the late 1960s.
> 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.
The article on
http://hotwired.lycos.com/netizen/96/53/special4a.html
seems to be to be poorly researched mumbo jumbo. But of course Van Zandt
might be wrong...
David
(formerly, Burnaby BC)
> 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
> >
> >
> >
> >
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