Have you ever found out something is not what it really is after you’ve been there? Ever been to four corners? We have a number of times. With millions we have come to find out what meets the eye might actually not be true.

 I the news this last week there were a number of articles about the four corners monument not being in the correct location. According to what I have read the four corners should be at 109 deg W and 37 deg N. This places the point about 2.5 miles to the east of the actual monuments location. The Google image included here showed the located it should be at.  In 1875 when the monument was placed though remarkable accurate for the time, survey techniques were a lot less precise then they are today.  According to David Doyle at the National Geodetic Survey (a quote from 9 news) ” At the time the surveying was done and the monument was established, the surveyor couldn’t take into account the size and shape of the Earth, as geodetic surveyors do now. However, for the time and the equipment available to him then, this was as precise of a location as could’ve been established.”

This incorrect placement has been know for a long time and lawmakers decided to accept the location though flawed in it’s current place. In making this decision they accepted that new technologies might come along one day that showed such an error as we see today.

So have you been to four corners. According to Doyle” Even if it’s 10 miles off, once it’s adopted by the states, which it has been, the numerical errors are irrelevant. It becomes the legal definition.”

So have we been in all four states at once? I say yes. It is apparent that the four states recognize the marker as the point were the corners join.