04 March 2017

States without a river for any part of their border


I had never paid attention to the Montana-Idaho border, assuming that the squiggly line included a river or two - but it's just a line following the crests of mountains.
The separation between Idaho and Montana begins where the Continental Divide intersects the 111th meridian. It then follows the Continental Divide to the point where it intersects the Bitterroot Mountains. Here the crests of the Bitterroot Mountains becomes the boundary up to the Clark Fork River, where a straight line due north completes the border.
The history behind this border is discussed here (politics and maybe money involved).

Image via Vivid Maps.

6 comments:

  1. new mexico? all the borders are drawn ruler straight. but disqualified because the Rio Grande Intersects one of these geometric straight segments. so, yeah, there is river water in its border for whatever the diagonal width of the river is at that border crossing. but, the river appears to have no part of the political boundary of the state. the border certainly does not track the river.

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    1. Zoom in to where the Rio Grande is leaving El Paso, just before it forms the Tex-Mex border...

      Also further upstream just west of where Rosinante road turns north.

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    2. OK I see that craziness at the last few southbound miles now. was the boundary drawn according to some former path of the river? (and was the change flood formed) it seems to follow no obvious geography. just looks arbitrary until the last few 1000 feet in the river to the intl. border.

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  2. Gadston purchase?

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  3. Did you create the map? If not, who did?

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