The States of Union How They Got That Way

By Thomas Bullock

This book is aimed at young and old alike interested in American geography and history, and for travelers of all ages interested in learning about the states they visit while touring the U. S. It is also aimed at the armchair traveler who enjoys the study of maps and history.

This book explores the foundations for the shapes of the fifty states. It shows how the nation expanded from thirteen colonies clinging to the Atlantic seacoast to fifty individual states spanning the continent and beyond into the Pacific Ocean and north to the Arctic Circle. It explains the methodology for the formation of territories and the states that were carved from those territories. It delves into peculiarities of the shape of various states such as why Michigan was granted the Upper Peninsula instead of Wisconsin, why does Idaho have a panhandle reaching the Canadian border, and why does the northern border of Minnesota have an irregularity that extends into Canada. And it delves into the political and economic influences that helped determine the shape of the states.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Bullock
• Release date: Oct 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465810113

Book preview

Chapter 1 Introduction

Have you ever assembled a jigsaw puzzle of the United States and wondered how the each state and the nation got their shape?

Have you ever wondered how the country expanded from thirteen colonies clinging to the Atlantic seacoast to fifty individual states spanning the continent and beyond into the Pacific Ocean and north to the Arctic Circle?

Have you wondered how the boundaries of each state were formed?

Why does Idaho have a panhandle reaching the Canadian border?

How did the Oklahoma panhandle come to be?

Why was Michigan granted the Upper Peninsula instead of Wisconsin?

How did the four corners at the junction of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah come about--was this planned or did it just happen?

Why does the northern border of Minnesota have an irregularity that juts into Canada, was this intentional or an error by the surveyor?

Why do states west of the Mississippi River such as Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and the Dakotas have largely rectangular shapes?

What were the political and religious influences that influenced the shape of the states?

How did economics and trade enter into the equation?

The northwest corner of the state of Pennsylvania cuts north through the western reach of New York State in order to have a port on Lake Erie. How did this come about?

What were the influences of land grants from foreign countries such as Spain and Mexico?

Did state borders always conform to the land grants and if not, how were these issues settled, and more importantly, how did it affect the shape of the state?

How did the royal land grants create conflicts concerning subsequent state borders?

This book explores the answers to these and other riddles in the development of state borders providing both historical and geographical insights into the shaping of our states. It describes the evolution of states from colonies, territories and independent republics such as Texas and California. It includes the various influences in establishing the borders that shaped states. Using this book, students can gain an insight of both history and geography as they place the various states in their proper places in the puzzle.

Chapter 2 Locating Places On The Map

Before we get started assembling the puzzle we need to understand the terms used in defining the boundaries of the states.

Natural and artificial barriers form the boundaries. Natural barriers are oceans, rivers, lakes and mountain divides while artificial borders are defined by a grid system using lines of longitude and latitude.

Latitude and longitude are imaginary lines used by surveyors to locate places on the earth. Locations are expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds from internationally agreed upon locations. The series of east-west-running circles, known as the parallels of latitude, are crossed at right angles by a series of half-circles extending north and south from one pole to the other, called the meridians of longitude.

Lines of latitude locate places north or south of the equator expressed in degrees from the equator. The equator divides the earth into northern and southern hemispheres and is assigned the value of zero degrees. Parallel to the equator and north and south of it are a succession of imaginary circles that become smaller and smaller the closer they are to the poles at 90 degrees. As an example, the location of the northern border of Colorado is located along the 42nd parallel north. This means the border is on the latitude 42 degrees north of the equator.

Lines of longitude locate places east or west of the prime meridian. The prime meridian divides the earth into the western and eastern hemispheres and is assigned the value of zero degrees. The prime meridian is located at Greenwich, England such that the eastern border of Colorado runs along the 102nd meridian meaning the border is 102 degrees of longitude west of Greenwich, England.

Measurements for specific locations are based on latitude and longitude are expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds. Thus, the location of the four-corners, where the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico have a common corner, is latitude 36 degrees, 59 minutes, 56.30 seconds North; longitude 190 degrees, 02 minutes, 40.24 seconds West. Written in shorthand the position is lat. 36º59´56.30˝ N., long. 109º02´40.24˝ W.

An easy way to remember the differences between latitude and longitude is that parallels of latitude decrease in length as they near the poles the meridians of do not decrease in length, they are always long as compared to parallels.

Now we are ready to start the puzzle, but first we need look at how the outline of United States was formed based on land grants, treaties, annexations and outright land purchases. Then we will delve into the states as individual pieces and how they form the puzzle of the United States.

Chapter 3 From The Atlantic To The Pacific

The first claims and boundary declarations in the new continent were in the form of royal grants by the European kings. However, the boundaries of these grants were ill defined and often overlapped.

Virginia, the first English colony was established by royal grants from James I of England to the Virginia Company in the early 1600s, encompassed half of North America. However, the Virginia grants overlapped other grants such as Henry IV of France to DeMonte in 1603, England's James I to the Council for New England in 1620, England's Charles I to the Massachusetts Bay Company Co. in 1629, England's Charles II to the Connecticut Co. in 1662 and to the Proprietors of Carolina in 1665, and England's George II to the Trusties of Georgia in 1732.

Most of the colonies arising from these grants claimed lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These transcontinental claims caused disputes among England, France and Spain and in many cases continued up to and during early statehood.

In 1750 the British colonies were a group of settlements clinging to the Atlantic coast bounded on the north by Canada on the south by Florida and to the west by the Appalachian Mountains.

In 1763 The First Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War, the last of several conflicts between France and England for control of North America. At stake were possession and control of the vast regions drained by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The war started along the Ohio River then extended northeast along the St. Lawrence River and eventually became a worldwide conflict between the combatants.

The peace terms favored the British who gained control over half of the North American Continent, including French Canada, French territorial claims east of the Mississippi River, and Spanish Florida. Spain, France's ally in the conflict, acquired all of the land west of the Mississippi known as Louisiana.

The Second Treaty of Paris, signed in on September 3, 1783 ended the war between Great Britain and the United States. By its terms, Great Britain recognized the former 13 colonies as the free and sovereign United States of America. The boundary line, stipulated in Article II of the treaty, defined the border between Canada and the northeastern states of Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York. It delineated the boundary with Canada through the Great Lakes and the northern border between Minnesota and Canada. In accordance with this Article, the western limit of the United States was the Mississippi River, from its headwaters south to the 31st parallel, the southern boundary with Spanish Florida from the Mississippi east to the Atlantic Ocean.

There were several areas of dispute between the two countries over the boundaries defined in Article II of this treaty. These boundary disputes continued for years. Along the northeastern border, questions arose about the actual source of the Maine’s St. Croix River. In the northwest, the treaty stipulated that the final segment of northern boundary, beyond Lake Superior, run due west from the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi River. However, the headwaters of the Mississippi were far south of this line and as a result Great Britain claimed the area referred as the Red River Drainage Basin.

Questions regarding the possession of islands in the Bay of Fundy continued until 1910, and the dispute over the Yazoo Strip, a sliver of land approximately 100 miles wide stretching from the Mississippi River to the Chattahoochee River, were caused in part by this treaty.

The Yazoo Strip came about due to conflicting claims between Spain and the United States. Spain argued that the northern border of East Florida was from the mouth of the Yazoo River on the Mississippi River, near the 32nd parallel east to the Chattahoochee River rather than from the 31st parallel on the Mississippi as defined in the Second Treaty of Paris.

Jay's Treaty, also know as the Northwest Treaty, ratified by Congress in 1785, attempted to resolve outstanding issues between the United States and Great Britain over the northeast boundary with Canada and the British outposts in the northwest. Great Britain ceded the region of the future states of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois to the United States. However, the question of the northeast boundary with Canada remained an open issue until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842.

In 1814, the Treaty of Ghent put an end to the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. By terms of this treaty, the combatant's territorial possessions before the war remained the same, and that both countries would appoint commissions for the purpose of resolving outstanding issues regarding the boundaries defined in the Second Treaty of Paris.

This war resulted in a triumph for the American expansionist policy for the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains -- trans-Appalachia. The Indians had allied themselves with the British and when the British withdrew across their borders into Canada, the Indians faced the onslaught of the Americans eager to push beyond the Appalachian Mountains into Indian Country. The Indians hoping to resist the white expansionist saw their shrewdest leader, Tecumseh, die and their most formidable military force, the Creeks, defeated in the battle of Tohopeka. The Creeks, in the treaty of Fort Jackson, surrendered more than twenty-two million acres to the whites that included part of western Georgia and much of present day Alabama.

The Treaty of San Lorenzo (1795), also know as the Pinckney's Treaty, ended the longstanding conflict with Spain over the Yazoo Strip. Spain ceded the Yazoo Strip to the United States and set the boundary with Florida at the 31st parallel. In addition, the Americans gained the right to navigate the Mississippi from its source in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1803, by a treaty with France for the Louisiana Purchase, the United States doubled in size. The extraordinary thing about the transaction was that President Jefferson had sent his representatives to negotiate with France the purchase of the city of New Orleans only, but when offered the entire Louisiana Territory -- they jumped at the chance.

Jefferson worried that with the French in control of New Orleans Napoleon Bonaparte would close the Mississippi River, which would be a serious threat to United States trade and national security. However, Napoleon at the time faced an imminent renewal of war with Great Britain and needed money. Also, Jefferson's representative hinted at an alliance between the United States and Great Britain against France. This encouraged Napoleon to offer the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States.

In the rush to complete the deal the wording of the treaty did not precisely describe the limits of the purchase. In particular it was unclear regarding the boundary with West Florida and did not accurately