DISTANCES ALONG THE BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES The distances given below are as projected on a sea-level plane. All these boundaries, on land as well as through water, consist of straight lines between "turning points." Some of these lines-in New Hampshire, for example—may be less than 50 feet long. The New Hampshire boundary, if measured in steps of a quarter of a mile, would be only 49 miles long. Vermont: North line east and west on or near the 45th parallel to middle of main channel of Lake Champlain_-_ 90.4 New York: Vermount corner in Lake Champlain west to St. Lawrence 64.5 Through St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, Niagara River, and 380. 7 445. 2 Pennsylvania: Through part of Lake Erie.. 41.5 146. 2 Michigan: North and west through lakes and rivers to Minnesota corner at mouth of Pigeon River_. 720.5 Minnesota : Mouth of Pigeon River to northwest angle in Lake of the 425.6 Northwest angle in Lake of the Woods south to lat 49° 26.6 Washington: Along 49th parallel___ 285.5 Gulf of Georgia to Pacific Ocean opposite Cape Flattery-- 142. 0 In this bulletin, the phrase "territory of the United States" include areas under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the United States. Thes areas extend over a large part of the earth; from Barrow, Alaska, or the north to American Samoa on the south, and from the Palau Island: in the western Pacific to the Virgin Islands in the Atlantic. In places for statistical purposes it is desirable to refer to the 48 States and the District of Columbia, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. The words “conterminous United States" are used in these places. LOUISIANA PURCHASE The entire basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries, and much of the coast region of the Gulf of Mexico which were subsequently known as the Territory of Louisiana, were originally claimed by La Salle 32 in 1682 for France by virtue of discovery and occupation. (See pl. 1 for routes followed by La Salle and others between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.) The area claimed on the Gulf extended west and south to the mouth of the "Rio de las Palmas," which was probably the stream now known as the Rio Grande. In 1712, France made a grant to Antoine de Crozat of the exclusive right to the trade of this region. Because this grant gives the limits. of this vast region as they were understood by France, a part of it is here quoted: We have by these presents signed with our hand, authorized, and do authorize the said Sieur Crozat to carry on exclusively the trade in all the territories by us possessed, and bounded by New Mexico and by those of the English in Carolina, 31 Mowry (1902, chap. 2-11) gives an excellent presentation of this subject, with many references. 32 For a translation of La Salle's proclamation, see Sparks (1847, v. 11, p. 201, 202). For reference to the location of the Rio de las Palmas, see Bandelier (1922, p. 42). all the establishments, ports, harbors, rivers, and especially the port and harbor of Dauphin Island, formerly called Massacre Island, the river St. Louis, formerly called the Mississippi, from the seashore to the Illinois, together with the river St. Philip, formerly called the Missouries River, and the St. Jerome formerly called the Wabash [the Ohio], with all the countries, territories, lakes in the land, and the rivers emptying directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. All the said territories, countries, rivers, streams, and islands we will to be and remain comprised under the name of the government of Louisiana, which shall be dependent on the General Government of New France and remain subordinate to it, and we will, moreover, that all the territories which we possess on this side of the Illinois be united, as far as need be, to the General Government of New France and form a part thereof, reserving to ourself, nevertheless, to increase, if we judge proper, the extent of the government of the said country of Louisiana. This document indicates that France regarded Louisiana as comprising the drainage basin of the Mississippi at least as far north as the mouth of the Illinois and those branches of the Mississippi that enter it below this point, including the Missouri, but excluding land in the Southwest claimed by Spain. It is, moreover, certain that the area now comprised in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho was not included. Crozat surrendered this grant in 1717. On November 3, 1762, France by a secret treaty ceded this region to Spain, defining it only as "the country known by the name of Louisiana," but Spain did not take possession until several years later. By the treaty of peace of 1763 between Great Britain, France, and Spain, the western boundary of the British possessions in the New World was placed in the center of the Mississippi River, thus reducing the area of Louisiana by the part east of the river. By these two treaties France disposed of her possessions in North America, dividing them between Great Britain and Spain. The limit set between the British and Spanish possessions was given as the Mississippi, the Iberville, and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. (See fig. 16, p. 169.) The Iberville River is now called Bayou Manchac. In the early days there was a connected waterway (now closed) through this river between the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. The Island thus formed was called the island of New Orleans. Great Britain then subdivided her newly acquired province, Florida. The area south of lat 31° N. (changed in 1764 to a parallel through the mouth of the Yazoo River, approximately 32° 28′ N.) and west of the Apalachicola River was called West Florida; the region east thereof and south of the present north boundary of Florida received the name of East Florida. For the next 16 years these boundaries and names remained undisturbed. In 1783, by the treaty of peace with the United States at the end of the Revolution, Great Britain reduced the area of West Florida by the cession of that portion north of the 31st |