Texas is a state with numerous natural borders, including the Rio Grande, which serves as the natural border between Texas and Mexico, and the Red River, which separates Texas from Mexico. The Alamo, built in 1718, is the common landmark in Southern Texas. Texas offers a variety of landscapes, including high deserts, stunning beaches, and towering forests. Some of the best natural wonders in Texas include the second-largest canyon in the United States, seaside preserves, hot springs, sand dunes, and wildflowers.
Some famous landmarks in Texas include Blue Hole Regional Park, the Four Corners Monument, Enchanted Rock, Big Bend, and Guadalupe Peak. The Four Corners Monument marks the quadripoint in the Southwestern United States where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. The Sabine River creates a natural boundary to Louisiana in the east.
Big Bend is the largest national park in Texas and sits adjacent to the US-Mexico border on the large bend in the Rio Grande River. Visitors can kayak along the Rio Grande Valley and enjoy the stunning scenery of the Guadalupe Mountains and Davis Mountains. Guadalupe Peak, the highest natural point in Texas at 8,751 feet, is a fun opportunity to stand in three states all at once.
In summary, Texas offers a rich array of natural treasures, including high deserts, stunning beaches, towering forests, and iconic landmarks like the Alamo and Congress Avenue Bridge.
📹 Canada & The United States’s Bizarre Border
## Related Videos: – Grey Grades Canada’s Flags: https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7dgkMAyln0.
Where can you stand in 3 different states?
In 2004, the Missouri Association of County Surveyors installed a new plaque at the tri-point, situated at the southeast corner of Kansas, northeast corner of Oklahoma, and western edge of Missouri, marking the three-state border.
What do the Four Corners represent?
Various cosmological and mythological systems depict four corners of the world, or four quarters of the world, corresponding to the four points of the compass or the two solstices and two equinoxes. At the center may lie a sacred mountain, garden, world tree, or other beginning-point of creation. Four rivers often run to the four corners of the world, watering or irrigating the four quadrants of Earth. In Mesopotamian cosmology, four rivers flowing out of the garden of creation define the four corners of the world.
The Akkadians marked the northern geographical horizon by Subartu, the west by Mar. tu, the east by Elam, and the south by Sumer. Later rulers of Mesopotamia, such as Cyrus, claimed the title “King of the Four Corners”. In Christianity and Judaism, the Old Testament identifies the Garden of Eden and the four rivers as the Tigris, Euphrates, Pishon, and Gihon.
Where is the actual 4 corners spot?
The Four Corners Monument in the Southwestern United States is the only point shared by four states, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also marks the boundary between the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation. The state boundaries marked by the monument were established during the American Civil War to combat the spread of slavery in the region. The markers placed became legal boundaries, superseding written descriptions of geographical meridians and parallels.
The monument is maintained as a tourist attraction by the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department, Four Corners Monument Navajo Tribal Park. It consists of a granite disk embedded with a smaller bronze disk around the point, surrounded by smaller state seals and flags representing both states and tribal nations. The disk reads “Here meet in freedom under God four states” in each state.
Local Navajo and Ute artisans sell souvenirs and food around the monument. An admission fee is required to view and photograph the monument. Despite its remote and isolated location, the monument has become a popular tourist attraction, with people traveling long distances to take pictures of family and friends at the monument since 1908.
What was the importance of the 4 Border States?
During the Civil War, the Border States provided the Union with a variety of valuable resources, including livestock, grains, and minerals. Additionally, they contributed essential railways and water routes, which were crucial for the Union’s military operations.
Why is Four Corners called Four Corners?
The Four Corners area in the United States is named after the quadripoint at the intersection of 37° north latitude and 109° 03′ west longitude, where the boundaries of the four states meet. The Four Corners Monument marks this location, making it the only location in the United States where the four states meet. Other popular areas within the Four Corners region include Monument Valley, Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
The most populous city in the Four Corners region is Farmington, New Mexico, followed by Durango, Colorado. The United States acquired the Four Corners region from Mexico after the Mexican-American War in 1848. In 1863, Congress created the Arizona Territory from the western part of New Mexico Territory, legally defined as a line running due south from the southwest corner of Colorado Territory. This act ensured the eventual creation of four states meeting at a point, despite errors in boundary surveying.
Are there any 4 way borders?
The Four Corners Monument in the American Southwest marks the only point in the United States where four different states (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona) meet in one place. However, the area in the middle of the Zambezi River, in southern Africa, where Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana all touch, may not be a quadripoint after all. The narrow “Caprivi Strip” of Namibia seems to go hundreds of miles out of its way to meet Zimbabwe. Some residents even call this area, at the northern end of Botswana’s Chobe National Park, the “four corners of Africa”.
The existence or non-existence of this quadripoint has been a matter of life and death in the region. In 1970, both Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa claimed that the quadripoint did exist, leading to the illegal operation of the Kazungula ferry connecting Zambia and Botswana. Shots were fired at the ferry, and one boat was even sunk by the Rhodesian army.
Where do 3 states meet in the US?
This list includes 60 tripoints where the boundaries of three U. S. states converge at a single geographic point. 36 of these points are on dry land, while 24 are in water. Three of the water points are in the Great Lakes and have no land nearby. A tripoint occurring in a populated area may also be informally described as a tri-state area. The markers are located in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
Is 4 corners in the right spot?
The Four Corners Monument, situated at the confluence of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, represents the sole instance in the United States where four states converge at a single point. Despite the fact that the monument’s original location was not where it was originally intended, its current location is considered to be the official point where these states meet.
Where can you stand in 4 states at once?
Four Corners Monument in Arizona is a unique landmark where four states intersect at one point. Visitors can stand in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico simultaneously, featuring a bronze disc embedded in an elevated monument flanked by flags of the four states and the area’s original tribal nations. The unique roadside attraction on the Colorado Plateau offers unique photo ops and honors the natural beauty of the area.
The site also features artisans from the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe who invite visitors to browse their traditional arts and crafts, including silver and turquoise jewelry, hand-woven rugs, and ceremonial baskets.
The monument is maintained as a visitor attraction by Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation, with demonstrations and displays providing historical context for native cultures and inspiring stewardship of the surrounding lands. Food vendors serve traditional dishes such as frybread and Navajo tacos.
What country is the 4 corners in?
The Four Corners Monument, located in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, marks the land boundary of two American Indian nations. New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah are part of the Navajo Nation, while Colorado is home to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation. Although the monument is in the furthermost corner of each state, it’s worth a visit for exploring Monument Valley or taking a Grand Circle Tour of national parks. The region is remote, with no accommodations or services, but self-contained toilets are available. The nearest gas station is in Tee Nos Pos, Arizona.
📹 Marianna Trevino-Wright – The Butterflies and Plants along the Texas-Mexico Border
National Butterfly Center Director Marianna Trevino-Wright is our November 2020 guest speaker. Her presentation is titled “The …
And now, as of June 22, 2022, Canada’s “whiskey war” with Denmark is finally over. The “war” was “fought” over HANS ISLAND, which both countries claimed. The Canadians started the war by raising their flag over the island and leaving a bottle of whiskey when they left. Then Denmark arrived and took down the Canadian flag, respectfully, and raised the Danish flag, leaving a bottle of Cognac. This process was repeated every so often over the years. Now Canada and Denmark have agreed to share the island.
When my cousin went to uni in Montreal, he met a friend that lived in that aforementioned town going over the border. it’s another very small town. There, people can cross the border freely to get to the other side of town and often go to work in either country. They also use both currencies for regular daily transactions. Pretty neat.
As a British Columbian Canadian who lives less than 20 minutes from the border, I find this fascinating. I never knew there was a “no-touching zone” on the entire border. I just thought is was a gap in the forest from logging. And the fact that there are some parts where you have to cross the border to reach another part of your own country is equally interesting.
I was talking with a friend who grew up in Wisconsin. There was a road that looped up through Canada and back. You couldn’t get to the road from the Canada side. So the high school kids figured out they could drive into Canada and drink and party, and the WI authorities couldn’t do anything, and the Canadian authorities couldn’t get to them to do anything. If course the Mounties finally ended up hiking or horseback or something, and the kids got their asses busted and the party thing shut down. Fun while it lasted though.
Years ago, I was surveying boundaries of a National Forest. It had been done before in the 1800’s. They did an amazing job considering they only had a compass and a chain. We did find one error that was significant enough to cause Forest Service having to move a large park entrance sign maybe 50 feet.
When I was 15 (I’m now 62) we went on a boat tour of the Thousand Island region of the ST. Lawrence. I seem to recall the tour guide pointing out a small bridge between two islands and stated that it was the shortest international bridge in the world, one island in Canada and the other in America, both owned by the same family. Now I wonder if those islands were twenty feet apart. I took the same tour in 2002 with my family and that same information wasn’t pointed out so I don’t know if it is still true. Either way the scenery was beautiful and Boldt Castle was really cool.
Growing up I lived on Grosse Ile, an Island south of Detroit MI at the mouth of the Detroit River and Lake Erie. My house was on the east side of the Island and the view out of my window was of the Detroit River and Canada. I lived right on the boarder which was down the middle of the Livingston website (roughly). I was closer to Canada than the main land of the US. I never thought of that as being somewhat unique growing up but I guess it kind of is.
One of my high school teachers grew up in one of those border states. I forget which one. He was a Vietnam vet so this would’ve been in the 50’s. He talked about how when they used to go hunting they knew where the border was because there were no trees, but they would hunt in Canada and Canadians would hunt in the states. Because nobody cared.
Man, I’m sorry this article missed my favorite border irregularity (also known as the one that’s where I’m from). The border between where Maine (then a part of Massachusetts) ended and New Brunswick and Quebec began was so disputed we went to war. Not joking. “The Aroostook War.” Also known as the ‘Bloodless Aroostook War,’ which also featured the declaration of the independent nation the Republic of Madawaska until it was resolved. Thus the plethora of forts in the northernmost county of Maine, including Fort Kent and Fort Fairfield among others. The border was set to its current lines (largely following the St. John River Valley, which also means we didn’t need to cut a swath as we have a river that does that for us) with the signing of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, which established the border and ended the war. (Most of the territory was ceded to America, but the treaty ensured an overland route between Lower Canada and the Maritimes, so everyone went home satisfied and there were never non-cigarettes-or-potato based border disputes ever again. Well, until the 2000s when the casual-cross-border relationship that defined the St. John Valley’s economic web got scuttled post 9/11.)
We drove to the border on up north of Polebridge Montana a couple years ago just to say we did. I didn’t realize until then that there was the no touching zone. One other note; at that location there is also a fairly deep trench dug on the boarder (I don’t know how far the trench goes from the gate) Local guy said it’s to help prevent people crossing in vehicles. An ATV would have no issue, but I don’t think a regular car/suv could make it through. This was once an operating border crossing until 9/11. Both Canada and the US sides had quite a few cameras and sensors on towers. He claimed if you walked across a ways that some boarder patrol folks would show up. Wasn’t in the mood to test that theory, so I took his word for it!
My nephew who is from Buffalo, NY is a US border guard and was originally in stationed in Laredo, TX. It took a few transfers to get back home. When I mentioned to a friend that he was finally back home in Buffalo, she asked why there would be border patrol agents in Buffalo because there us no border there.
Another funny one is Stewart B.C and Hyder Alaska, when leaving Canada you can pass freely into Alaska but upon return you need some I.D. Hyder has a population of about 80 people and relies heavily in Stewart for pretty much everything. Once you are in Hyder there aren’t any roads that lead further Into Alaska, it’s one strange little town. If you ever visit do not forget to get Hyderized.
Except in the Boundary Waters/Quantico area, there is no border band of twenty feet in the park that I saw. That border was a little/ a lot lax when it comes to campers with canoes needing to get down a lake and the only natural route to walk it with your gear and canoes is for a brief journey on a portage through the Quetico to get get around a small falls and rapids on Long Lake,
I have this scenario running in my head… Canada comes crying to England “Mommy, the United Stares is touching me!” England says to the United States “US, Please stop touching your sister Canada.” US says in typical US fashion “I’m an independent nation! I don’t have to listen to you! YOLO Swag” and so forth. Therefore the No-Touching Zone was created.
I seriously think the US and Canada should just unite. There are few countries on this planet that are as similar as those two. It would be so simple, they already have the same language so the communication would be easy. It would become the largest country on the planet, even bigger than Russia. The flag could keep the American stripes but replace the stars with 50 maple leaves. The problem is that Canadians would not agree to that. They would lose more than win in that deal.
I was backpacking once just outside of Glacier National Park and bumped into some folks. After some nice trail talk, we realized they were in the wrong country… As they were Canadians and had inadvertently crossed the border a few miles back by taking a left when they should have gone straight. 😂 We hiked together back to the no touching zone and set up our camps for the night in it.
Fun fact, there’s a First Nations territory called Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, that straddles both the international border between Canada and the US and the provincial border between Ontario and Québec, and is partly sitting in the St. Lawrence River (as some little islands). Fortunately, the residents can pass freely across the Canada–United States border.
Last weekend I went fishing on the Rainy River which divides Minnesota and Ontario. There was an obvious divide since 99% of the boats there were on the USA side. Literally could imagine the international border between our two countries just by looking at where the boats are. Its basically an honor system because authorities barely patrol these waters. You can see this river I am talking about at 3:28 of this article. East (right) of Lake of the Woods where the northwest angle is.
Canada:Ah, found some tiny peices of land and now ill build a lighthouse on it it claim these peices of land for New Brunswick United states:Oh some land, this will be mine and I will claim it for Maine Canada:US do you see a lighthouse on that land United states:Ummmm no I don’t see anything Greenland and Mexico: Why am I even here??
In washington state, in the last 10 years, if you’re hunting on foot and get even close to that line, suddenly a border patrol agent will appear and want to know what you’re doing. Not sure what kind of surveilance they use, but it’s comprehensive. I wasnt aware the northern border posed a threat to national securitylike that.
This article makes a compelling case for why the US should just annex Canada as the 51st state (or we can give each province their own state-ship status) and finish the job we tried to do oh-so-badly in 1812. There, no more border disputes. Canada wins by being able to go to Hawaii or Miami without having to deal with border patrol/customs, and America wins by dominating the hockey event at the Olympics.
When it comes to those islands off of Maine and New Brunswick there’s a joke that may be real. It goes that a US Navy ship got reports from a Canadian frequency that the US ship needs to turn from it’s course. The US ship responded by saying that they’re a fully loaded war vessel and any attempt to make them turn around would be an act of war. To which the Canadians responded “well we’re a lighthouse so it’s your move”.
In a couple of points in this article you can see a common problem that arises when using meandering rivers as the basis for political borders. While rivers make great natural borders, they don’t make very good political ones because their courses change over time, especially meandering ones. When a river goes through a bend, land will be eroded from the outside of the bend where the water pushes against the bank while sediment will be deposited along the inside of the bend extending it out. These forces of erosion and deposition mean that small bends in a river eventually become large, dramatic horseshoes, lakes, or even straight courses again given enough time. You can see it clearly at 0:06. The political border clearly once followed that river, but over time the river’s course changed and now the political border appears to be doing some nonsensical bullshit that cuts land off from its own country on both sides. Choosing to use rivers as the basis for borders is efficient and effective in the short term, but in the long term it means that you will either have to periodically redraw the borders to account for changes in the river’s course, which might not be popular with people who like living in, say, Virginia more than Maryland, or you need to accept that within as little as a few decades your border might not make any sense.
A lesson in peaceful co-existence the rest of the world could learn something from. Canadians and Americans disagree on a number of important issues. Like siblings in a close family, however, those issues have never threatened the essential family unit in the modern era. Americans and Canadians will never be so divided as to ever stop thinking of themselves as family. And when the chips are down, despite disagreements, it’s family one always turns to first!
If you want to see images of all the markers, or specific markers along the border you can do that here: internationalboundarycommission.org/mb/IBC_CFI-eng.php Find a location along the border by clicking and dragging, then zoom in (+/- buttons or mouse wheel or +/- keys on your keyboard) until you see a red dot or square or yellow triangle, then use the “select by rectangle” tool to outline one or more markers and click on the links that appear to see an image of it and other details about construction, etc. Pictures are unavailable for lots of places, but BC does have a lot.
I’ve done many a trip into the Boundary Waters and Quetico, and know those boundary markers well. What’s lovely is that there is a very long uninterrupted series of lakes and rivers starting at Lake of the Woods and going all the way to Lake Superior. A sizable bit is the bottom edge of Hunter Island, which is a large landmass in Ontario bordered by connected lakes and streams. (This is just from me scanning the map, so maybe there are little bits where lakes don’t connect. So even though I’ve spent lots of time on the border, I’ve never seen or heard of the mown “no touching zone.” Neat.
Technically, even if it had been perfectly surveyed the long border would not be a straight line. The only parallel of latitude that is a straight line is the equator. The 49th parallel would appear to curve to the north in both directions when compared with a straight line. But at least it would be a smooth curve and not the jagged line we ended up with. As an extreme example consider the 89°59’59″N parallel which is a circle about 200 feet in diameter centered on the north pole.
Look closely to the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Specially the Netherlands and Luxemburg. The story in this is very interesting, I just wont tell since you love to figure things out yourself. To make it even more interessting, which is fitting to this article even better (or part 1 at least) is a tiny nation within the Netherlands… or… they at least want people to believe it is… Baarle-Nassau is another odd story you would love to figure out.
This reminds me of playing on a minecraft server based on team survival and competition (towny) and after a heated debate we just split land we did not use and probably will not use and declared a no man’s land and a completely USELESS marked border between us and a rival team. And whenever we would find structures or players from the other team slightly violating this, even tho it was land that had no economic value whatsoever we were super pissy about it and demanded them to go away (and visa versa). i’d imagine if a 3rd team were to settle there thinking it’s ininhabited good land both of us would immedietly have oblitareted them without warning.
does it really matter if Canada or the USA is better than one another? its just a matter of opinion and there is an almost non existent chance of a war between them im pretty sure its much more beneficial to share a border with an ally and not an enemy. the last thing either country would want is a war so close to home, fighting in the middle east or other places around the world is one thing but fighting happening in your own country is something you wouldn’t want
nada and the United States share the longest, straightest, possibly boringest border in the world. But, look closer, and there’s plenty of bizarreness to be found. While these sister nations get along fairly well, they both want to make it really clear whose side of the continent is whose. And they’ve done this by carving a 20-foot wide space along the border. All five and a half thousand miles of it. With the exception of the rare New England town that predates national borders or the odd airport that needed extending, this space is the no-touching-zone between the countries and they’re super serious about keeping it clear. It matters not if the no-touching-zone runs through hundreds of miles of virtually uninhabited Alaskan / Yukon wilderness. Those border trees, will not stand. Which might make you think this must be the longest, straightest deforested place in the world, but it isn’t. Deforested: yes, but straight? Not at all. Sure it looks straight and on a map, and the treaties establishing the line say it’s straight… but in the real world the official border is 900 lines that zig-zags from the horizontal by as much as several hundred feet. How did this happen? Well, imagine you’re back in North America in the 1800s — The 49th parallel (one of those horizontal lines you see on a globe) has just been set as the national boundary and it’s your job to make it real. You’re handed a compass and a ball of string and told to carefully mark off the next 2/3rds of a continent.
I have no idea how I’m seeing this article so late, and as far as I can tell from comments it’s (about) 6 years old. But I used to live right beside Campobello Island and Machias-Seal Island for a number of years! (love the puffins) Really interesting history around there, the Island of Grand Manan where I lived is actually a lobster fishing village which fishes the disputed territory alongside the lobster fisherman in Maine.
I know this article came out 8 years ago, but I was hanging out in the peace gardens last weekend and… I would love for you to come to my state of North Dakota, see the no touching zone, and hit the semi-autonomous zone that’s on the border, somewhat US, somewhat Canada, and also neither. Its gorgeous and absolutely a bizarre border.
The US-Canada border is kind of a pain in the butt for ham radio operators. On the US side, there’s an entity called “Line A” that generally parallels the border, about one degree to the south. North of Line A, hams can’t use the frequencies between 420 MHz and 430 MHz, which includes one of the frequencies traditionally used for amateur television. I believe there’s a corresponding Line B on the Canadian side. I don’t know why this regulation exists but I suspect there is border surveillance hardware that uses those frequencies.
I read in a local history book about a river in Alberta (Milk River) that eventually ends up flowing down into Montana, but Alberta decided to use some of the water for irrigation. This got the Americans up in arms saying that somehow the water in that river belonged to America. 😒 yeah, we Albertans still use that water for irrigation. I just have to wonder how many silly things like this exist between Canada and the US..
I live in Maine and we have a fourwheeler trail for miles of this no touching zone. It’s incredibly steep and a utv rolled over a couple years ago and died due to an air flight never being able to land anywhere closer than 10 miles due to the extremely intense terrain needless to say the landmarks are actually still there and are painted white every year
I thought it was great when Europe created the EU where they established agreed upon guidelines and standards which allowed citizens to travel freely and live and work legally in any of the countries that officially joined the European Union. I thought the United States and Canada were similar enough to come to such an agreement and then extend it to Mexico with a long-term plan to extend it through South America and Europe and eventually the world. It might take a while for some nations to get up to the same standards of wages and rights and the United States would have to finally make healthcare a right but there would be a reward in sight for achieving the agreed upon standards. We would save a lot of money on boarder security. The environment would not be harmed by boarder walls and wars would be less likely saving lots of money on military spending. That’s why I was surprised when the UK decided it no longer wanted to be part of the EU. The problem of illegal immigration of poor oppressed people to richer safer nations needs to be solved but not by preventing them from entering but by helping to solve the problems in their homelands that make them risk their lives to escape from there.
There’s the American Muscle Cars 🇺🇲 (like the Chevelle, Nova, Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, Charger, Cuda, Corvette, Ford F100, Tempest, Lemans, GTO, Firebird, and Trans-AM) and then there’s the Canadian Muscle Cars 🇨🇦 (like the Beaumont SD, Acadian Canso SD, Acadian SS, Meteor Montcalm, Meteor Rideau, Mercury M100, Monarch, Frontenac, Pontiac Parisienne, Fargo pickup, and the 59 Plodge Viscount).