Four Corners, The Controversy

The source of the rumors about the Four Corners Monument being located in the wrong place is the false assumption that the north and south line that intersects at the Four Corners was intended to be on 109th Meridian, also known as 109 degrees West longitude. That was not the case. Back in the 1800s, many people used lines of latitude(called parallels) and lines of longitude(called meridians) to mark artificial borders. The United States Congress did this when it came to east-west lines using latitude. However, before 1912, Congress predominantly used the "Washington Meridian" instead of the more popular "Greenwich Meridian" to make surveys and mark borders involving longitude. The Greenwich Meridian is the "0" point for lines of longitude and it runs through the Royal Observatory in London, England. The "Washington Meridian" now defunct, once ran through the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.
  Initially, New Mexico and Arizona were combined into a single territory and when the decision was made to split them into separate territories, it was originally decided to split them with an east-west line, running the border on 34 degrees North latitude, a short distance north of Phoenix. However, this idea never came to fruition and it was decided to split the territories on a north-south line. The act of Congress that called for splitting New Mexico Territory, and thus created Arizona Territory during the Civil War stipulated that line would be "32 degrees west of the Washington Meridian."
This worked out to 109 degrees, 2 minutes and 59.25 seconds West longitude. This placed the line 2 3/4 miles west of the 109th meridian.
  A reknowned surveyor of the day by the name of Charles Robbins was hired to survey the line. He diligently surveyed the line and marked the intersection of the line with the 37th parallel of latitude with a wooden post. Evidently he had encountered quite a bit of ridicule and skepticism while he was making his survey because, after he finished, he wrote a letter to the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper (which is still in business today) about his survey.  His letter is as follows:
     "  It seems to have been the general impression that the line was 109 degrees of   
        longitude west of Greenwich. Such is not the case, as was the law makes it 32 degrees 
        west from Washington, which corresponds to 109 degrees, 02 minutes, 59.25 seconds west
        from Greenwich, which places the line a small fraction less than 3 miles farther west than
       would have been the case if it had been run as the 109 degrees of longitude" 
  In the next installment of this blog, I will go into more specifics about the placing of the Four Corners Monument.