In making a physical determination of the boundary, however, a situation became apparent that was not desirable to either country. The boundary line following the Northwest Angle Inlet, which had been adopted as a part of the boundary from Lake Superior to the Northwesternmost Point of Lake of the Woods, crossed the meridian boundary as marked by the seven monuments no less than five times," thereby enclosing between the two boundaries two small areas of United States waters in Lake of the Woods, containing but 2% acres, entirely surrounded by Canadian waters."

Upon the recommendation of the Commissioners, the parts of the north-andsouth line and of the line in the channel lying northward of their most southern intersection were eliminated from the International Boundary by the treaty signed at Washington February 24, 1925.7

The boundary from the Gulf of Georgia (Georgia Strait) to the Northwesternmost Point of Lake of the Woods as thus retraced was marked throughout by replacing the original monuments and other marks with new monuments where necessary and by setting intermediate monuments on the lines established between the old marks.

Since the adoption of the treaty of 1925 all new marks and monuments set in the course of maintenance work have been set with due regard to the provisions of articles I and II of that treaty.

5 See details, page 141, and map, page 138.

6 Treaty of 1925, page 12.

7 See article I of the treaty, page 11.

8 See chapter on Monuments and Monumenting, page 115.

9 For text of treaty, see page 11.

FIELD OPERATIONS

The field operations of the resurvey and remonumenting of the International Boundary Line from the Gulf of Georgia (Georgia Strait) to the Northwesternmost Point of Lake of the Woods were begun in the spring of 1901 and were carried on each successive season with varying forces and under varying conditions until 1914. After the last date small amounts of field work were done in 1917, 1918, 1919, 1921, 1922, and, after the adoption of the treaty of 1925, in 1926 and each successive year thereafter.

As a result of an informal exchange of notes between the two Governments regarding the need of more effectively marking parts of the 49th parallel land boundary west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, independent though cooperating parties of both Governments were placed in the field in the summer of 1901 to make a general reconnaissance. The reconnaissance was continued, by Canadian parties only, in 1902. The data gathered by these reconnaissances were used in formulating the terms of "concurrent action" 2 of the two Governments in 1902 and 1903 under which representatives or commissioners were designated to act jointly in renewing lost or damaged monuments and in placing additional monuments on the part of the boundary lying west of the Rocky Mountains. Following the appointment of Commissioners, and under their direction, constructive work was undertaken by separate United States and Canadian parties operating each season from 1903 to 1907. The work during this period included a complete retracement of the original boundary, the monumenting thereof, the cutting of a vista through the timbered sections, the execution of a scheme of triangulation for topographic control, and the making of modern topographic maps covering the entire boundary.

On April 11, 1908, the treaty providing for the more complete definition and demarcation of the International Boundary between the United States and the Dominion of Canada from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean was concluded between the two Governments. Upon the conclusion of the treaty, field operations on the boundary west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains were carried to completion under the provisions of article VII of the treaty.

By

East of the summit of the Rocky Mountains the work was done by separate United States and Canadian parties accompanied by representatives of the other Government. Work was begun immediately following the conclusion of the treaty of 1908 providing for it, and was carried on each successive season until 1914. this time the work of retracing, remonumenting, vista cutting, triangulation, and mapping had been virtually completed. Later, office computations of the geographic positions of the boundary monuments showed that supplemental triangulation or traverse should be done east of the summit of the Rocky Mountains to make sure

1 See diplomatic correspondence: Appendix II, page 192.

2 See concurrent action: Appendix II, page 193.

34

that the monuments interpolated between monuments of the original survey had been correctly placed on the arc of the parallel. This work was done by small United States parties in 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1921.

In 1922 a small joint party was sent to the western end of the boundary line to make additional surveys which had not seemed necessary in the earlier days of the work, to recut the vista from Monument 1 to Monument 43, and to repair damaged monuments.

The demarcation of the boundary was now virtually completed, the exceptions being the geodetic determination of a number of monuments west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains and the adjustment of all the monument positions to the North American geodetic datum. The necessary triangulation and traverse were done subsequent to the adoption of the North American datum of 1927 and in conjunction with boundary maintenance under article IV of the treaty of 1925. The technical details of the field operations will be found in the chapter on "Field and Office Methods and Results."

SEASON OF 1901-RECONNAISSANCE WEST OF THE

ROCKY MOUNTAINS

The field work carried on in 1901 was a reconnaissance of that part of the boundary lying west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains. Its immediate purpose was to satisfy the current demand for the identification of the boundary in certain places and to furnish the two Governments with more complete information relative to the condition of the line preparatory to making plans for a more complete resurvey and demarcation of the entire boundary between their territories.

3

One Canadian party was assigned to the section of the boundary between Point Roberts and the Skagit River, referred to hereafter as the western Canadian party, and one to the section of the boundary between the Similkameen and Columbia Rivers, hereafter referred to as the eastern Canadian party. A geologist and a naturalist were attached to the western Canadian party. The United States group consisted of an astronomic party, a topographic party, and three geologic reconnaissance parties. The astronomic and topographic parties were assigned to the parts of the boundary where local misunderstanding regarding its location had arisen more particularly across the valley of Silesia Creek; between Midway, British Columbia, and Cascade, British Columbia; and in the vicinities of Gateway, Montana, Tobacco Plains, and Wigwam River. The first geologic reconnaissance party was to operate between Point Roberts and Osoyoos Lake, and the second

3 The same geologist, R. A. Daly, with a subparty was attached to the Canadian boundary survey party each year to and including 1906. A detailed geological report based upon his field work, which covered the entire mountain section traversed by the International Boundary, under the title "Geology of the North American Cordillera at the Forty-ninth Parallel", by Reginald Aldworth Daly, was published in three volumes as an appendix to the report of the chief astronomer of the Department of the Interior of Canada, for the year ended March 31, 1910. The report was republished as “Memoir No. 38, Department of Mines, Geological Survey of Canada, 1912." As Dr. Daly's work did not include identification or survey of the boundary it will not be further referred to in this report.

1 Silesia Creek is the spelling authorized by the United States Board on Geographical Names. Early spellings appear on maps as Senehsay, Senehsai, Slesse, and Selacee.

5

between Osoyoos Lake and the west crossing of the Kootenai River at Porthill, Idaho; and the third from the west crossing of the Kootenai River at Porthill, Idaho, to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.

The general instructions to the parties were to find out, in the sections assigned to each: first, what parts of the boundary surveyed and marked between 1857 and 1861 were still recognizable; second, whether such parts corresponded to the true

treaty boundary, namely, the astronomic 49th parallel of north latitude; third, what parts of the boundary had not been surveyed and effectively marked, and what points should be marked to constitute a certain and effective location of the 49th parallel boundary throughout its course from the summit of the Rocky Mountains westward to the Gulf of Georgia (Georgia Strait).

WESTERN CANADIAN PARTY

The western Canadian party was organized late in May at Chilliwack, British Columbia. The section of the boundary on which they were to be engaged, from the Skagit River on the east to the coastal plain at the base of the Cascade Mountains on the west, presents more barriers to travel and to survey for a distance of about 50 miles than any other section of the parallel. The mountain crests rise to heights as great as eight and nine thousand feet. The valleys between them are deep and narrow and with sides so steep and precipitous that in many instances the rise from the valleys to the crests is as great as 6,000 feet in a distance of two miles. Rain and snowfall are extreme. Damp climatic conditions have fostered a forest growth of an immense size and density that covers the whole region except on the highest summits. Fallen timber, dense underbrush, rock slides, cliffs, precipices, the steepness of the mountain slopes, and the numerous glaciers of the higher peaks, all combine to make travel and surveying difficult and dangerous.

The party moved up the Chilliwack Valley to the mouth of Silesia Creek and from there made a side trip up Silesia Creek to the boundary to meet the United States topographic and astronomic parties which had preceded them over the same route a few days before. As this was one of the places where misunderstanding existed as to the location of the boundary, it was deemed advisable that both Governments should be represented. Here an old post which had recently been mistaken by prospectors for a mark on the boundary was positively identified as being

5 Kootenai is the spelling authorized by the United States Board on Geographical Names. Kootenay is the spelling authorized by the Geographic Board of Canada.

the latitude observation post, 343 feet north of the boundary, used by the Commission of 1857-69. Starting at this post a traverse was run the required distance south to the boundary disclosing and positively identifying cairn 476 (now Monument 55) and other boundary marks.

The United States party remained to mark the boundary while the Canadians returned to the mouth of Silesia Creek and turned their attention to trail building up the Chilliwack River. After several days of arduous work the Canadian party reached the mouth of Middle Creek where it became necessary to bridge the Chilliwack River. This was done by felling a fir tree 8 feet in diameter across the stream and flattening the top surface for a foot walk for the pack animals. From the camp at the mouth of Middle Creek a trail was opened for about 2 miles up Middle Creek and the trail up the river was completed to the foot of Chilliwack Lake.

Trail building did not appear practicable along the precipitous and rugged sides of Chilliwack Lake. Therefore, a cache was built at the foot of the lake and arrangements made for the pack train to make weekly trips to Chilliwack for mail and supplies. A large raft and a cedar dugout canoe were made with which to traverse the lake. Using these, and with the aid of a fair wind, the outfits were transported to the head of the lake and camp was pitched on the bank of Dolly Varden Creek about one-half mile from the head of the lake and near the boundary.

From the camp on Dolly Varden Creek, boundary cairns 50 and 51 (now replaced by Monuments 62 and 63) were found in good condition. A vista was opened along the tangent to the parallel to the summit of the ridge on either side of the creek, and phototopographic surveys were made.

When this work was completed, the party moved down the lake to the mouth of Depot Creek and set up camp on the site of the old survey camp of 1857. They found near the camp the headboard of the grave of a soldier who had been a member of the military escort of the original survey party. The rough cedar cross carried an inscription to the effect that here was buried Michael Brown, a native of County Galway, Ireland, who was drowned in 1858, and was buried by his comrades of Company F, 9th Infantry, U. S. Army. A clearing was made around the grave and the headboard was renewed."

• Original boundary cairns and monuments are referred to by their numbers from west to east unless specifically stated otherwise.

7 In 1935 a Canadian party reported that the cedar cross marking the grave had become so decayed that it could no longer be maintained. The personnel of the Boundary Commission referred the condition of the grave to the War Department of the United States with the result that the Department furnished a suitable marble slab carrying the full inscription found on the wooden cross, and during the summer of 1936 the personnel of the Boundary Commission, both Canadian and United States, erected the marble slab, set in a solid concrete base, over the grave. A substantial contribution toward the cost of this work was made by the present Company F.