Cimarron Meridian Initial Point, Oklahoma

The Cimarron Meridian was the last meridian Initial Point established as part of the federal land survey in the Lower 48 states, the last of the 32 federal survey points of origin covering the USA, to anchor newly acquired federal land to the legal and cartographic grid (though five more Initial Points would be made in Alaska). It was created in 1881, in order to survey a federal no-man’s land between Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, an artifact left when Texas reduced its northern extent by half a degree, to fall below the 36 degree 30 minutes line of latitude, which would allow it to be a slave state, at the time Texas joined the Union in 1846. Once surveyed, this region became part of the Oklahoma Territory. The Initial Point survey marker of the Cimarron Meridian and baseline intersection is located along a north/south running fence along the meridian and the border between Oklahoma and New Mexico. The baseline established by this initial point was intended to define the east/west boundary between Texas and what would become Oklahoma, however, due to surveying errors, the official state line runs parallel to it, a few hundred feet south.