Corner of Colorado-Nebraska-Wyoming

According to the Congressional definition of the boundary of Colorado, this point is theoretically where the 41st parallel north latitude intersects 27 degrees west longitude as measured from the Washington Meridian*. However, this monument was first set by Oliver Chaffee during his 1869 survey - and due to the technological limitations of his day, it's not exactly right (although his survey does define the official boundary, regardless of its accuracy).

* Many American surveys between 1850-1884 were based on this meridian, which was officially abolished by Congress in favor of the Greenwich Prime Meridian in 1912. "27 degrees west of Washington" is a few miles away from the 104th degree of longitude west of Greenwich.

NOTE: The book "Colorado Mapology" (Erl H. Ellis, 1983, Jende-Hagan Book Corporation) is an excellent resource, from which I obtained much of the information presented on these pages. His photo below (taken in 1969) is published in that book.

That was looking east; the crossties on the fence enclosed the southeast corner of Wyoming. Improvements were made to this site in 1981 - for one thing, as you can see below, there's now a diagonal easement in the southeast corner of Wyoming.

August 1992

The camera is in Colorado; we're looking northeast. I am standing in the southwest corner of Nebraska's panhandle. My lovely wife is in the southeast corner of Wyoming. The fence runs along the east and south Wyoming state line.

Here is a closeup of the marker. It's one of the better ones I've seen: the original marker is preserved in the center, with a USGS benchmark on top. The new base is a "map" fashioned out of a type of rock commonly found in each respective state: red Lyons Sandstone for CO, black slate for WY, and buff sandstone for NE.

Apparently in 1869 Chaffee surrounded the original marker with a huge mound of stones, so I'm guessing the rocks strewn around the site are remnants from that pile.

Page created in 1998; last updated 03 March 2003.