Is this a revenue issue or a full employment act for surveyors?
I believe Michigan gave Indiana enough of it’s southern border to allow Indiana to have a connection to Lake Michigan. Indiana Dunes is a great beach after you hike up and over the dunes.
Ok ... as a Hoosier expat, I’m curious. I suppose the question is how the border was defined originally.
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had an epic, decades long battle with Kentucky over the state line, which was originally defined as the north bank of the Ohio River. Since the Ohio River got the Corps of Engineers treatment long ago, with locks and dams for navigation, it has not been a natural river for a loooong time.
That was a very minor issue as long as the friction arose from Kentucky revenooers prowling the north bank to make sure nobody was fishing in Kentucky’s river without a Kentucky fishing license, or putting in a small boat without paying Kentucky for the privilege.
But then Kentucky started getting greedy on water intake and discharges, with Kentucky running shakedown rackets on Ohio, Indiana and Illinois cities, towns, power plants, barge loading stations, and industrial development. It eventually went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the border was now out in midstream, so Kentucky couldn’t extort tribute. I.e., Kentucky got too greedy and got slapped down.
But what’s the issue between Indiana and Michigan? How was the border defined originally? They had precise surveys at the time, so I’m reasonably sure it wasn’t one of those “straight line due west from the big oak tree in Cletus Smith’s cornfield” things.
Land that has wandered into Michigan: “Indiana wants me, but I can’t go back there...”
Pay me the $500k (or even half of it) and I’ll gladly go up there with some spray paint and start mapping out a border. It can’t be that difficult if nobody’s fighting over it.
US Census Bureau TIGER does a “Boundary and Annexation Survey.” I am not sure what happens if the boundary they get from Indiana county officials differs from the one they get from Michigan county officials.
I’d be inclined to accept the TIGER line unless someone can prove it incorrect.
Ohio had a state line problem with Michigan way back when. It got resolved. Remember Toledo.
A 5-inch error over 110 miles is pretty tight. A 5-inch error between monuments not so good as that 5-inches would propogate through the remaining survey route.
You’re doing borders today.
I’m sure I’m missing something.
Is there some question about the exact location of the border between the states?
Is there some question about which state the houses along that street are located in?
Have the people who live there been voting , paying taxes, have drivers’ licenses, etc. from one of the states without anyone questioning, which state they live in up until now?
Are some properties going to legally now be moved from one state to the other?
The only Indiana joke I know:
“Indiana is a really messed up State, you know.”
“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”
“Well, the city of South Bend is in the north of the State; North Vernon is in the south; and French Lick isn’t at all what I thought it was going to be.”