Points On the Map-- Part 5: Four Corners Monument

Many states share tri-points, but Four Corners is the only quadripoint in the country.

According to James Fraser Hart, professor of geography at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, "Boundary lines follow human activity.... they follow the way people use the land."

Otherwise, they are typically drawn in straight lines such as Four Corners which was largely unsettled in 1848 when Mexico ceded the area to the United States after the Mexican War. In 1863, Congress approved a map with straight lines running east to west and north to south which created Four Corners shared by four states eventually.

Of course, boundaries often follow rivers and there are none in the area. There are a lot of straight line state borders out west.

Two More to Go. --RoadDog