Four Corners is a region of theSouthwestern United States consisting of thesouthwestern corner ofColorado,southeastern corner ofUtah,northeastern corner ofArizona, andnorthwestern corner ofNew Mexico. Most of the Four Corners region belongs to semi-autonomousNative American nations, the largest of which is theNavajo Nation, followed byHopi,Ute, andZuni tribal reserves and nations. The Four Corners region is part of a larger region known as theColorado Plateau and is mostly rural, rugged, and arid.
The Four Corners area is named after thequadripoint at the intersection of approximately 37° north latitude with 109° 03′ west longitude, where the boundaries of the four states meet, and is marked by theFour Corners Monument. It is the only location in the United States where four states meet. In addition to the monument, commonly visited areas within Four Corners includeMonument Valley,Mesa Verde National Park,Chaco Canyon,Canyons of the Ancients National Monument andCanyon de Chelly National Monument. The most populous city in the Four Corners region isFarmington, New Mexico, followed byDurango, Colorado.
The United States acquired the four corners region from Mexico after the end of theMexican–American War in 1848. In 1863 Congress created theArizona Territory from the western part ofNew Mexico Territory. The boundary was legally defined as a line running due south from the southwest corner ofColorado Territory, which had been created in 1861. This was an unusual act of Congress, which almost always defined the boundaries of new territories as lines of latitude or longitude, or following rivers, but seldom as extensions of other boundaries.
By defining one boundary as starting at the corner of another, Congress ensured the eventual creation of four states meeting at a point, regardless of the inevitable errors of boundary surveying.[1] The area was first surveyed by the U.S. Government in 1868 as part of an effort to make Colorado Territory into a state, the first of the Four Corners states formed. While the US Congress in 1863 intended the corners of Colorado to be placed at the intersections of lines of specific latitude and longitude, due to a "standard" survey error of the time, the originally surveyed location of the "Four Corners" point, along with the corresponding survey marker, was unintentionally placed by its initial surveyor 1,821 feet (555 m) east of the intended location.[2]
In 1925, some 57 years after Congress had first attempted to specify the spot, the problems surrounding the originally misplaced marker were brought up before the US Supreme Court. In order to amicably remedy this original surveying error, the US Supreme Court then redefined the point of the Four Corners, officially moving the Four Corners point roughly 1,800 feet (550 m) east, to where the original survey had first held it to be all along, and where it remains to this day, duly marked.[3] This initial survey error has resulted in some longstanding misunderstandings about the correct location of the Four Corners marker, some of which remain to this day.[4]
The first Navajo tribal government was established in 1923 to regulate an increasing number ofoil exploration activities on Navajo land in the Four Corners area.[5]
TheFour Corners Monument is located at36°59′56.3″N109°02′42.6″W / 36.998972°N 109.045167°W /36.998972; -109.045167.[6]
The Four Corners is part of the highColorado Plateau. This makes it a center forweather systems, which stabilize on the plateau then proceed eastward through Colorado and into thecentral states. This weather system creates snow- and rainfall over the central United States.[7]
Federally protected areas in the Four Corners area includeCanyon de Chelly National Monument,Hovenweep National Monument,Mesa Verde National Park, andCanyons of the Ancients National Monument. Mountain Ranges in the Four Corners includeSleeping Ute Mountains,Abajo Mountains, and theChuska Mountains.[8]
Six governments have jurisdictional boundaries at the Four Corners Monument: the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as the tribal governments of theNavajo Nation andUte Mountain Ute Tribe.[9] The Four Corners Monument itself is administered by theNavajo Nation Department of Parks and Recreation.[2] Other tribal nations within the Four Corners region include theHopi and otherUte.[10] The Four Corners is home to the capital of the Navajo tribal government atWindow Rock, Arizona.[5] The Ute Mountain Ute tribal headquarters are located atTowaoc, Colorado.[11] TheUS federal government also has a large presence in the area, particularly theDepartment of the Interior with theBureau of Indian Affairs and theDepartment of Agriculture with theForest Service.
The Four Corners region is mostly rural. The economic hub, largest city, and onlymetropolitan area in the region isFarmington, New Mexico.[12] The populated settlement closest to the center of Four Corners isTeec Nos Pos, Arizona.[13] Other cities in the region includeCortez andDurango in Colorado;Monticello andBlanding in Utah;Kayenta andChinle in Arizona; andShiprock,Aztec, andBloomfield in New Mexico.[12]
Air service is available via theDurango-La Plata County Airport inDurango, Colorado,Four Corners Regional Airport inFarmington, New Mexico, andCortez Municipal Airport inCortez, Colorado.Interstate 40 passes along the southern edge of the Four Corners region. The primaryU.S. Highways that directly serve the Four Corners includeU.S. Route 64,U.S. Route 160 (which serves theFour Corners Monument itself),U.S. Route 163,U.S. Route 191,U.S. Route 491 (previouslyU.S. Route 666[14]), andU.S. Route 550.
The main line of theAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, now operated by theBNSF Railway, passes along the southern edge of Four Corners. The area is home to remnants of through railroads that are nowheritage railways. These include theDurango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and theCumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. TheBlack Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad, which connects a power plant with a coal mine near Kayenta, comes near the Four Corners.[8]
The Four Corners region was one of the first locations in the United States in which helium was extracted, and the area is increasingly important as a source of helium supply, with the region being noted for its abundance of high-grade'green' helium.[15]
The most notable helium field in the region is Arizona's Holbrook basin.
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