Four Corners marker off by 2.5 miles

Error attributed to original survey conducted in 1868

The Associated Press

Article Last Updated; Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:50PM

Photo by JERRY McBRIDE/Herald fie

Tourists visit the Four Corners Monument in 2003. According to National Geodetic Survey readings, the monument is about 2½ miles west of its proper location. The error is attributed to inaccurate surveying techniques from the Civil War-era.

SALT LAKE CITY - Tourists who want to put a hand or foot in each of four states at the Four Corners area apparently are off the mark - by several feet.

According to readings by the National Geodetic Survey, the Four Corners marker showing the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah is about 1,807 feet west of where it should be have been placed in 1875.

The only place in the United States where four state boundaries come together was first surveyed by the U.S. government in 1868 during the initial survey of Colorado's southern boundary line.

The intended location was 109 degrees west longitude and 37 degrees north latitude. But, because of surveying errors, the popular tourist spot actually is just a bit off.

The accurate location would be downhill to the east of U.S. 160 in Colorado and northeast of the San Juan River as it flows into New Mexico.

"That's a long ways to be off," said David Bronson, surveyor of San Juan County, Utah. Still, he said the monument's present location is the accepted one.

Bronson said that given the crude equipment of the era, it's amazing surveyors were as accurate as they were about the time the marker was established.