Four Corners of Confusion

by Larry O'Hanlon | May 01, 2009

There is quite a fray underway in the American Southwest about something that's either vitally important or utterly meaningless (I'm still not sure which). It's about the famed Four Corners, where the right-angles of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah fit neatly together and are marked by a much-sprawled upon and photographed monument. Seems someone has misplaced it. Not the monument, of course. Someone misplaced the location of the Four Corners, where the monument should be. 

A little background: Most Americans of kindergarten age and above know this is the only place in the U.S. where four states meet. It's a geographic oddity that is strangely compelling and, perhaps, a testament to how much trouble our forefathers had walking a straight line to join states in a nice, neat right-angled sort of way. 

But, as I already said, it turns out that Four Corners monument is in the wrong place. Yep. I learned this just yesterday while waiting in a lobby and leafing through the Albuquerque Journal. Recent reports suggest the Four Corners monument was built at least 1,800 feet from the technically correct spot where four states meet. I kid you not.

My first thought about this was: "Wow. A whole lot of folks who took pictures of themselves straddling the wrong place are going to have to venture back from across the globe -- their GPS units and a bunch of geodetic documents in hand, their cameras slung around their necks and tubes of zinc oxide in their pockets -- so they can relocate the real Four Corners. Then they'll all have to wait in a long line of sweaty pale-faces to get their turn re-shooting pictures of themselves splayed Twister-style in the right place."

My second thought was that this is a good thing because it would be terrific for the tourism industries of all four states. As a resident of New Mexico, I'm all for lightening the pocketbooks of travelers who happen through the Land of Enchantment. Folks from New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona need to take a page from President Obama's playbook: This problem is also a great business opportunity. 

My third thought was that this is an unfortunate time for such an opportunity to come knocking, or very fortunate, if you enjoy watching four states play "hot potato" with a swine flu outbreak. That's what might happen if one of those Four Corners tourists came down with the illness: Four states would be claiming it was not their state that had the outbreak. Must have been those unclean people 1,800 feet over there.

My fourth and final thought was that my first three thoughts are totally beside the point. Four Corners is on sovereign Indian Land. So it's technically not in any state at all. In other words, the Four Corners doesn't even exist. Now stuff that into your GPS and smoke it. 

-Larry O'Hanlon