Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)
Once having lived close to the Mason-Dixon Line whose markers (some of them) I've traced and visited, I find surveying and marking boundaries, whether it's surveying a property line prior to erecting a fence to international boundary disputes such as the one waged between Canada and the US (and discussed brilliantly in this study) to be fascinating subjects. It took many years and a number of major conferences and treaties before the line separating Canada and the US was established. While concentrating particularly, though not exclusively, on the boundary line along Minnesota's border, William Lass has written a fascinating history of America's northern boundary.
Lass begins with the agreement made in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which brought the American Revolution to its conclusion. Additional treaties were signed all the way up to 1846, each one amending previous agreements. The most interesting account might be the chapter on the Lake of the Woods and the formation the Angle Inlet as American property, which came about through a lack of information regarding the head of the Mississippi River at the time. The western boundary of the US prior to the Louisiana Purchase was assumed to be the Mississippi River, which was thought to extend up to Lake of the Woods. Thus the most NW point of the lake was marked as the corner of US territory. But when it was learned that the river began much farther south, the 49th parallel became the agreed upon boundary line and a line was simply drawn south from the NW point to the line. Thus the town of Angle Inlet is only one of two communities in the contiguous United States (Point Roberts, WA is the other) that in order to reach by land one must travel through a foreign country. Another most intriguing chapter is the one regarding the final remonumenting of the line during the early 1900s. Lass's history is scholarly and thorough, but not dull. Numerous maps and photos grace the text. Anyone interested in the history of the US's northern boundary in general, or Minnesota's in particular, will find much to savor in this oversized, double-columned book. Highly recommended.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Minnesotas Boundary with Canada: Its Evolution Since 1783 (Publications - Minnesota Historical Society, Public Affairs Center)
0 comments:
Post a Comment