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feet southeast of the mark of 1903. The geodetic line as now marked is 4,040 feet east of the south end of the 1859-60 line and about 880 feet east of the north end of the line as marked in 1859–60 and retraced in 1873. The strip of land included between these two lines has an area of about 44.6 square miles and was determined by the Supreme Court boundary decision to be in Texas and not in Oklahoma.16

The northern line of the "panhandle" of Texas, which is the southern boundary of the "public-land strip," was fixed by statute at lat 36°30' N.

It was surveyed in 1860 by John H. Clark, boundary commissioner, United States and Texas. Sixteen monuments were erected on this boundary line. Monument 10 on this line is in lat 36°29′59.56" N., long 101°05′17.00" W. This location of the north boundary and the location of the 103d meridian boundary were confirmed by Congress and by Texas in 1891 (26 Stat. L. 948, 971; U.S. Cong., 1905, p. 13-18).

The location of the west boundary of Texas, which by statute is the 103d meridian, has been the cause of many disputes. The southern part of the line for about 69 miles and the northern part for about 172 miles were reported as surveyed and marked in 1859 by J. H. Clark, leaving an unmarked gap of about 69 miles. Most of the marks were merely mounds of earth; a few were stones or piles of stone, and some of these were identified many years thereafter. Later surveys indicate that the north end of the line is in long 103°02′28.04" W. and lat 36°30′01.45′′ N. (1927 N.A.D.). The south end is in long 103°03′55.02′′ W. and lat 31°59′58.52′′ N. (astronomic). There is therefore a discrepancy of about 111⁄2 miles between the two parts of the line, both being west of their proper positions (Baker, 1902); but these lines as well as that following the 32d parallel, having been accepted by the United States and Texas, are the legal boundary lines. A joint resolution of Congress February 16, 1911 (36 Stat. L. 1455), declared 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 lines were described as following the 103d meridian and 32d parallel as "determined by Clark," and commissioners were authorized to act for Texas and the United States to re-mark the north-south line so far as it could be identified; where no marks were found or where surveys had not been made, straight lines were to be run joining recovered points.

In accordance with this act, surveys were run south from the known location of the north boundary mark, to the 34th parallel, to which

For other data relating to this survey, see the commissioners' report to the Supreme Court dated July 15, 1929 (281 U.S. 109).

"See report by J. H. Clark (1882) commissioner.

Clark claimed to have run, and north from the identified mark established by Clark for the intersection of the 32d parallel and the 103d meridian, to the 33d parallel. Between the 32d and the 34th parallels a straight line was run which bears N. 1°00′42′′ E. Large concrete monuments (fig. 33) were established at a number of points, and other substantial marks were placed at each mile.

The 32d parallel boundary was also rerun in 1911; its length as measured was a little more than 209 miles. The latitude of this line near Clark monument 1, east of the Rio Grande, is 32°00′00.37′′ N. as determined from astronomic observations in 1903. At milepost 53 (resurvey of 1911) the geodetic position is lat 31°59'59.93" N., long 103°58'02.53" W. Milepost 61 is in lat 31°59′59.40" N., long 104°06′13.18" W. The notes and plats of these surveys are on file in the General Land Office.

The southern boundary of Texas is a part of the international boundary between the United States and Mexico and as defined by the treaty of 1848 and reaffirmed by the treaty of 1853 follows the middle of the deepest channel of the Rio Grande from the Gulf of Mexico to the southern boundary of New Mexico. A survey of this boundary was made in 1852-53. The report was published in 1857. It is generally referred to as the Emory report on the survey of the Mexican boundary (Emory, 1857b).

A convention, concluded November 12, 1884, provided for resurveys of parts of the boundary where important changes in the position of the river had occurred (Malloy, 1913, v. 1, p. 1159). This agreement stated that:

The dividing line shall * * follow the center of the normal channel of the rivers named, notwithstanding any alterations *** effected by natural causes through the slow and gradual erosion ✶ ✶✶ and not by the abandonment of an existing bed and the opening of the new one.

Any other change wrought by the force of the current, * shall produce no change in the dividing line as fixed by the surveys of * ** 1852, but the line then fixed shall continue to follow the middle of the original channel bed, even though this should be wholly dry.

Modifications of the articles of the convention of 1884 were made by the convention of 1905 (Malloy, 1910, v. 1, p. 1199). The latter agreement provided for the solution of some of the problems raised by the earlier convention that were due to numerous changes in the position of the "normal channel" as follows:

Whereas *** it has been observed that there is a typical class of changes effected in the bed of the Rio Grande, in which, owing to slow and gradual erosion, coupled with avulsion, said river abandons its old channel and there are separated from it small portions of land known as "bancos" bounded by the said old bed, and which, according to the terms of *** the Convention of 1884,

remain subject to the dominion and jurisdiction of the country from which they have been separated.

Whereas said "bancos" are left at a distance from the new river bed, and by reason of the successive deposits of alluvium, the old channel is becoming effaced, the land of said "bancos" becomes confused with the land of the "bancos" contiguous thereto, thus giving rise to difficulties and controversies, *

Whereas the labors of the International Boundary Commission, undertaken with the object of fixing the boundary line with reference to the "bancos," have demonstrated that the application to these "bancos" of the principle established in *** the Convention of 1884 renders difficult the solution of the controversies mentioned, and, instead of simplifying, complicates the said boundary line between the two countries;

Article 1 refers to maps made from surveys of 58 bancos along the lower Rio Grande which the convention eliminates, those on the right bank of the river passing to Mexico and those on the left bank to the United States.

Article 2 is in part:

The International Commission shall, in the future, be guided by the principle of elimination of the bancos established in the foregoing articles ***. There are hereby excepted from this provision the portions of land segregated by the change in the bed of the said rivers having an area of over two hundred and fifty hectares [618 acres, or nearly a square mile], or a population of over two hundred souls, and which shall not be considered as bancos for the purposes of this treaty and shall not be eliminated, the old bed of the river remaining, therefore, the boundary in such cases.

Article 3 required that other bancos be surveyed and that suitable marks be placed in the abandoned riverbed. Over the years, since the convention of 1905, more than 200 detached tracts along the river, called bancos under the terms of the agreement, have been eliminated. Some 10,000 acres, formerly on the U.S. side, passed to Mexican sovereignty while nearly 18,000 acres, formerly on the Mexican side, passed to the United States. (U.S. Dept. State, 1963b.)

A convention between Mexico and the United States for the rectification of the Rio Grande in the El Paso-Juarez Valley was concluded at Mexico City on February 1, 1933. (See also Boggs, 1940, p. 67–70.) The agreement was ratified by the respective Governments, and had for its purposes the protection of the valley from flood dangers and the stabilization of the internationl boundary. The work was carried out under the direction of the International Boundary Commission.

The canalization of the river, from a point below El Paso to the head of Box Canyon, shortened its course from 155 miles to 88 miles between these points. The gradient was thus increased from 1.8 to 3.2 feet per mile. The new channel is a series of tangents connected by smooth curves and should prevent further meanderings of the river.

The convention ordered that "the axis of the rectified channel shall be the international boundary line." Each Government agreed to surrender to the other such parcels of its land as would fall on the opposite side of the new channel. This provision called for the exchange of a considerable area of land, and each Government agreed to acquire the land within its borders at the time for transfer to the other "in absolute sovereignty and ownership." The engineering work on this project was completed in 1938.

The rectification and stabilization project left in dispute an area of less than a square mile in the city of El Paso. An attempt was made to settle this question by arbitration in 1911. When the Commission made its award, the United States claimed it was invalid as, among other things, it disregarded the well-established legal principle that a boundary moves with the river when the movement is due to erosion and deposition rather than an avulsion.

Through the years, many efforts have been made to find a solution to the problem that would satisfy both sides. A convention concluded between Mexico and the United States on August 29, 1963, provided for the rectification of the Rio Grande in the manner of the 1933 project.

A new channel, following roughly the position of the river in 1864, will become the international boundary. This will involve the purchase by the United States from its citizens of some 630 acres for transfer to Mexico, and the transfer of 193 acres by Mexico on the north end of the Cordova tract to the United States. The Cordova tract of 386 acres had been cut off from Mexico in 1899 by a relocation of the river to control floods. It remained under Mexican sovereignty, but utilization of the physically detached area was difficult.

The estimated value of the land and improvements to be acquired by the United States is $20 million. The costs of the canalization and the replacement of the six existing bridges will be born equally by both Governments. The new channel is to be concrete lined and of a size to carry 18,000 cubic feet per second with 3.3 feet of freeboard. The minimum radius of curvature would be 1,640 feet. It is expected that the new channel, 4.3 miles in length, will prevent further movement of the bed of the Rio Grande.

The demarcation of the new boundary is to begin as soon as the affected property has been acquired by the United States and the inhabitants evacuated.

Ratifications of the convention were exchanged by the two Governments on January 14, 1964.

The present boundary lines of Texas are described as follows: Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico, at the outlet of Sabine Lake, the line passes northward through the middle of Sabine Lake and up the mid

dle of the Sabine River 48 to the point where the river intersects the parallel of 32°; thence north along the meridian of that point of intersection to the point where that meridian intersects the Red River; thence up the south bank of the Red River along the south fork to the 100th meridian west of Greenwich; thence north on that meridian to the parallel of 36°30'; west on that parallel to the meridian of 103° as marked; thence south along the 103d meridian to the parallel of latitude of 32°; thence west on that parallel to its point of intersection with the Rio Grande; thence down the midchannel of the Rio Grande to the boundary line between the United States and Mexico; thence following that line (see p. 43) to the Gulf.

MICHIGAN

Michigan was organized as a Territory June 30, 1805, from the northeastern part of Indiana Territory. (See fig. 22.) The following clause from the act dividing Indiana Territory defines its limits (2 Stat. L. 309):

from and after the thirtieth day of June next, all that part of the Indiana territory which lies north of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory, and be called Michigan.

The enabling act for Illinois, passed in 1818, contained a provision transferring to Michigan Territory the portion of Illinois Territory not included in the State of that name and also an area of 5,880 square miles north of lat 42°30′ N., then a part of Indiana Territory. The following is the text of the clause referred to (3 Stat. L. 431) :

all that part of the territory of the United States lying north of the State of Indiana, and which was included in the former Indiana territory, together with that part of the Illinois territory which is situated north of and not included within the boundaries prescribed by this act, to the state thereby authorized to be formed, shall be, and hereby is, attached to and made a part of the Michigan territory.

On June 28, 1834, an act was passed extending the limits of the Territory of Michigan to Missouri River. The clause of the act relating to this area is as follows (4 Stat. L. 701):

all that part of the territory of the United States bounded on the east by the Mississippi River, on the south by the state of Missouri, and a line drawn due west from the northwest corner of said state to the Missouri river; on the southwest and west by the Missouri river and the White Earth river, falling into the same; and on the north, by the northern boundary of the United States,

48 An act of Congress, July 5, 1848 (9 Stat. L. 245), gave Texas the right to extend its boundary into the Sabine River and Lake to coincide with the west boundary of Louisiana.

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