The Six Corners of Utah (Part 2)

My desire to visit all of the six corners of Utah began in earnest before I visited the three corners of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.  I was working for the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) out of Rock Springs, Wyoming, and part of my duties involved looking for section corners to survey fence lines.  These section corners usually varied from a pile of carefully arranged rocks on the ground to brass-capped monuments with the associated coordinates engraved on top.  I figured that if surveyors went to the trouble of marking section corners on the ground, then the remaining state corners ought to be marked as well.  It soon became something that I just had to find out.

Three Corners (Arizona, Nevada, & Utah)

The tri-state corner of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah was the fourth of Utah’s six corners I visited.  It is located about thirteen miles north of Mesquite, Nevada, and is the lowest of the six corners at 2,554 feet elevation.  I reached this corner by driving north from Littlefield, Arizona, on a graded road to a fence line that marked the Arizona-Nevada border.  After parking the vehicle, I hiked along the fence line for about a mile until I reached the monument.  It has “WL 37” engraved below “Nevada” on the west side of the monument, which refers to the 37th meridian west of Washington DC.

The sandstone monument of
Arizona, Nevada, & Utah

Three Corners (Idaho, Utah, & Wyoming)



The tri-state corner of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming was the most difficult of the six corners to locate.  At the time, it consisted of only a rock with “WYO” engraved on the east side, and the township/range coordinates of Utah and Idaho engraved on the south and west sides, respectively.  It has since been replaced with a more permanent monument.  I reached this corner by taking a dirt road out of Cokeville, Wyoming, and hiking along a fence line that I suspected to be the Utah-Wyoming border, which it was.

The Idaho & Utah side of the tri-state
corner of Idaho, Utah, & Wyoming

The Wyoming side of the tri-state
corner of Idaho, Utah, & Wyoming







 





 



Three Corners (Idaho, Nevada, & Utah)

The last of the six corners of Utah I visited was the tri-state corner of Idaho, Nevada, and Utah back in 1989.  I had my hiking partner, Joe, with me during the trek.  Accessing this corner involved having a good map and following a maze of dirt roads from the “City of Rocks” area of Idaho.  We eventually reached the Goose Creek area where we parked the vehicle next to a fence line marking the Utah-Idaho border.  We then hiked west along the fence line for at least 2 1/2 miles one way to reach the monument.  It is interesting to note that the prescribed location set for this corner was the intersection of the 42nd parallel of latitude with the 37th meridian west of Washington DC, yet as surveyed, the monument actually sits approximately 3,300 feet southeast of this point.  This gives Idaho and Nevada slightly more territory and Utah slightly less territory.  The question then arises: Why are not errors like this corrected when discovered?  Answer: Once a boundary is surveyed on the ground and accepted by all interested parties, it is a true line even though it doesn't follow the written description precisely.

The point of intersection between
Idaho, Nevada, & Utah

The tri-state corner of
Idaho, Nevada, & Utah