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Four Corners

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This article is about the region in the south-western United States. For the monument in this region at the corners of the four states, see Four Corners Monument. For other uses, see Four Corners (disambiguation).
The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map

The Four Corners is a region of the United States consisting of southwest Colorado, northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona and southeast Utah.[1] The boundaries of the four states listed above meet at one point—the only such geographic point in the entire United States. The Four Corners area is named after the quadripoint where the boundaries meet. There is also a Four Corners Monument showing the exact location where the four states touch. The majority of the Four Corners region is part of semi-autonomous indigenous American Indian nations. Two of these are the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation which both have boundaries at the Four Corners Monument[2] in addition to the four states. The Navajo Nation covers three of the four state corners; the Ute Mountain Reservation is found only in the Colorado corner. The most populous city and economic capital of the region is Farmington, New Mexico.

A young Navajo boy is riding horseback in Monument Valley. The Navajo Nation includes much of the Four Corners area, including the valley, famous from many western movies.

History

The United States first acquired the area now called Four Corners from Mexico after the Mexican American War in 1848. In 1863 Congress created Arizona Territory from the western part of New Mexico Territory. The boundary was defined as a line running due south from the southwest corner of Colorado Territory, which had been created in 1861. This was an unusual act of Congress, which almost always defined the boundaries of new territories as lines of latitude or longitude, or following rivers. By defining one boundary as starting at the corner of another Congress ensured the eventual creation of four states meeting at a point, regardless of the inevitable errors of boundary surveying.[3] The area was first surveyed by the U.S. Government in 1868 as part of an effort to make Colorado Territory into a state, the first of the Four Corners states formed. The first marker was placed at the spot in 1912.[4] The first Navajo tribal government was established in 1923 to regulate an increasing number of oil exploration activities on Navajo tribal lands.[5]

The Four Corners Monument as it appeared in the early 21st century. The four states are represented by their state flags in clockwise order Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico

.

Geography

Four Corners Monument before remodeling.
The actual spot where the four states come together, 2008

The Four Corners Area is generally defined as a circle around the Four Corners Monument located at 36°59′56.31532″N 109°02′42.62019″W / 36.9989764778°N 109.0451722750°W / 36.9989764778; -109.0451722750.[6] A series of news stories in April 2009 pointed out that modern surveys had determined that the intersection of borders was not where it was intended to be.[7] However, the news stories used whole degree coordinates, not accounting for the fractional degree offset between the Washington Meridian standard, used at the time, and the current standard, the Prime Meridian.[7][8] Furthermore, boundaries as surveyed on the ground have always taken legal precedence over the intended coordinates, according to general U.S. land principles,[9] law,[10] and the Supreme Court.[11]

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, now a heritage railway, formerly connected the Four Corners area to the national rail network

The Four Corners is part of a high Colorado Plateau. This makes the area a center for weather systems, which stabilize on the plateau then proceed eastward toward the mountain and central states. This weather system creates snow and rain fall over the central United States.[12]

Protected areas in the Four Corners area include Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Mesa Verde National Park and Monument Valley.[13] Mountain Ranges in the Four Corners include Sleeping Ute Mountains, Abajo Mountains and the Chuska Mountains.[14]

Politics

Six governments have jurisdictional boundaries at the Four Corners: the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah as well as the tribal governments of the Navajo Nation and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.[2] The Four Corners Monument itself is administered by the Navajo Nation Department of Parks and Recreation.[4] Other tribal nations within the Four Corners region include Hopi and other Ute tribes.[15] The Four Corners is home to the capital of the Navajo tribal government at Window Rock, Arizona.[4] The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal headquarters are located at Towaoc, Colorado.[16]

Cities

Bluff, Utah and Comb Ridge from the air

The Four Corners region is mostly rural. The economic hub, largest city, and only metropolitan area in the region is Farmington, New Mexico.[17] The populated settlement closest to the center of Four Corners is Teec Nos Pos, Arizona.[13] Other cities in the region include Cortez and Durango in Colorado, Monticello and Blanding in Utah, Kayenta and Chinle in Arizona, and Shiprock, Aztec, and Bloomfield in New Mexico.[17]

Transportation

Interstate 40 passes along the southern edge of the Four Corners region. The primary U.S. Highways that directly serve the Four Corners include U.S. Route 64, U.S. Route 160 (which serves the Four Corners Monument itself), U.S. Route 163, U.S. Route 191, U.S. Route 491 (previously U.S. Route 666[18]) and U.S. Route 550.

The main line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, now operated by the BNSF Railway, passes along the southern edge of Four Corners. The area is home to remnants of through railroads that are now heritage railways. These include the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. The Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad, which connects a power plant with a coal mine near Kayenta comes near the Four Corners.[14]

In The Simpsons episode The Bob Next Door Sideshow Bob takes Bart to "Five Corners" to murder him, reasoning that by killing him there the authorities could not prosecute as they would lack jurisdiction.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Explore Four Corners". Canyonlands eSolutions. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  2. ^ a b "Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation" (PDF). U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
  3. ^ Hubbard, Bill, Jr. (2009). American Boundaries: the Nation, the States, the Rectangular Survey. University of Chicago Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-226-35591-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b c "Four corners Monument". Navajo Nation. Retrieved 2008-05-08. Cite error: The named reference "navajonation" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Welcome to the Navajo Nation". Navajo Nation. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
  6. ^ "Four Corners PID AD9256" (text file). NGS Survey Monument Data Sheet. United States National Geodetic Survey. 2003-05-07. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
  7. ^ a b Arave, Lynn (2009-04-19). "Four Corners marker 2 1/2 miles off? Too late". Deseret News. Retrieved 2009-04-20. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ "An Act to provide a temporary Government for the Territory of Colorado" (PDF). Thirty-sixth United States Congress. 1861-02-28. Retrieved 2007-01-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  9. ^ "The Boundary lines, actually run and marked in the surveys returned by the surveyor general, shall be established as the proper boundary lines of the sections or subdivisions for which they were intended", "Manual of Instructions for the Survey of The Public Lands of the United States". Commissioner of the General Land Office. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  10. ^ (Title U.S.C. 43, Sec, 752)."U.S. Code". United States. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  11. ^ "NEW MEXICO V. COLORADO, 267 U. S. 30 (1925)". Supreme Court Case. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  12. ^ Ward, Kathleen. "Rainmaker, Go North – Nebraska Needs Help, Too". Kansas State University Research and Extension. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  13. ^ a b "Google Maps". Google using data from NAVTEQ. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  14. ^ a b Arizona Road and Recreation Atlas (Map) (2004 ed.). 1:400,000. Benchmark Maps. 2004. § D3. ISBN 0-929591-84-4.
  15. ^ "Four Corners Indian Tribes". Farmington, New Mexico Convention and Visitors Bureau. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  16. ^ "Ute Mountain Ute Tribe – Overview and Statistics". Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
  17. ^ a b "Four Corners Area Map". Farmington, New Mexico Convention and Visitors Bureau. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  18. ^ Richard F. Weingroff. "U.S. 666: Beast of a Highway?". (USDOT – FHWA). Retrieved 2007-11-17.
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