3 messages.---------Johnnie ----------------------------------------------------------- >Date: Wed, 10 Jan 96 13:45:35 CST >From: "Arlyn Sherwood" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: Oklahoma-Texas Border Commission You might want to talk withthe Illinois Attorney General's office (John Brunsman specifically). Illinois & Kentucky just went through the same thing. ------------------------------------------------------------------- >Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 14:18:39 -0800 (PST) >From: "Edward M. Taylor" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: Oklahoma-Texas Border Commission One of the bits of trivia from my high school Texas history class was the Texas-Oklahoma border (to put the states in correct order) <g>. My recollection is that the border was defined in the Lousiana Purchase agreement. The US was probably trying to avoid international border issues related to river navigation and water rights. Ed Taylor GEOname Digital Gazetteer, GDE Systems, Inc. Home Page: http://www.gdesystems.com/IIS/Slipsheets/GEONAME.html (Terrible weather in San Diego; high was only about 80 degrees yesterday.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- >Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 16:46:43 -0600 >From: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Oklahoma-Texas Border Commission (long) >There was an interesting article in Sunday's _Denver >Post_ about a new commission that has been appointed >to determine the CORRECT location of the >Texas-Oklahoma Border, which is technically the south >side of the Red River as it was some time in the 1830s I don*t know where that 1830 date is coming from. Here*s some of the history: The Oklahoma-Texas boundary was originally established by a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819, known as the Adams-Onis Treaty. The terms of the treaty provided that part of the boundary follow the Red River to the 100th meridian as shown on Melish*s map of the United States printed in 1818. I believe the first Red River boundary surveys where done in the 1850s. There were problems with the location of the 100th meridian and the determination of which of the two forks of the Red River was the actual boundary went on for 40 years. After oil was discovered in 1918 at Burkburnett, the exact location of the boundary became the issue of a suit against Texas by Oklahoma. Oklahoma claimed that the 1819 treaty indicated that the boundary was the south bank whereas Texas asserted that the boundary was at the center of the river. The Supreme Court found in favor of the south bank and a boundary commission consisting of Arthur Kidder and Arthur Stiles was appointed to survey and map the boundary. They did an extremely thorough investigation which resulted in some very interesting reports. I believe the current issue has to do with marking a fixed location for the boundary instead of having it shift with the river bank. In 1923, a Supreme Court opinion included a statement that *the boundary between the two states is not an unswerving line, but a river bank; and where the natural and gradual processes of erosion or accretion the bank is changed the boundary follows the change.* The director of our Surveying Division is very knowledgeable about the current situation- I can find out more about the status of this thing if there is interest. Michael T. Moore Archivist, Texas General Land Office [log in to unmask]