Northeast Corner of Texas

The corner's latitude carries the politics of 1850. The Handbook of Texas explains that the Compromise of 1850 set the Panhandle's north line at 36°30' because Texas was a slave state and that line had served since 1820 as the Missouri Compromise boundary between slave and free territory. The meridian had its own trouble: in 1858 surveyors found that the Melish map of 1818, on which the 1819 treaty line rested, put the 100th meridian a hundred miles too far east. A 1930 Supreme Court decision moved the line about 3,700 feet east along 132 miles.

What the plaque says

Established by law in 1850 as intersection of 100-degree longitude and 36-degree, 30' latitude, this point remained in dispute 79 years. Of some nine surveys made to locate corner on ground, almost none coincided. Even so, three blocks were annexed to Texas from Oklahoma (1903, 1929) - to confusion of landowners. One man claimed he went to bed in Oklahoma and awoke in Texas. In 1929 U.S. Supreme Court had a final survey run. Some people with land formerly in Oklahoma could not afford to repurchase it in Texas, but exact site of corner was at last determined. (1970)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Follett — 7.6 mi
• Follett United Methodist Church and Church Bell — 7.6 mi
• Follett United Methodist Church — 7.6 mi
• No Man's Land — 13 mi