The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-05
THE DIVIDING LINE.
How the international Bound
airy Was Marked.
LABOR WORTHY or THE GIANTS
Men who Were With the Locating Com
mission Tell How the Great Work
Was Carried Out.

In the city Of Blaine, not over furlong from
the posfoasce, firmly set in the sand of tie
beach on the meaadef line of Boundary bag,
stands simple iron obsiixk. On one side are
inscribed the words sTreasy OF Washington, -
and on the opposite side the date, "June Is,
1876" This monument MARKS the point where
the Forty ninth parallel, the boundary line De
tween the British and American possessions,
touches tidew.fer.
The city Of Blaine enjoys the singular dis
tinction OF being situated in the extreme north
west corner of the United States Visitors to
the city can hare stand with ono foot On each
OF the two great political divisions OF North
America
The great struggle for the possession OF the
Pacific coast between America, England,
Russia, France and Spain Terminated with the
ratification OF the treaty of Washington, June
Il, ISIS. when America came down from - de-
grees 10 minutes or Tight" and Great Britain
abandoned her claim of supremacy north of the
mouth OF the Columbia, thus leaving America
In possession OF Puget sound, the most wonder
ful system OF ha-5ors and inlets in the world
Had the Mississippi river been little longer
the boundary line would probably be about q
hundred miles north OF the established
line The treaty of 17S3 fixed our north
efn boundary from the northwest point of tie
Lake of the Woods aduc west TO the Mississippi
rver." 1t was found that the Mississippi did
not rise a. far north as the point of Lake of the
Woods. and the boundary had to be relocated.
In Isis . boundary commission, sitting in Lon
oon, In ignorance OF the latitude OF the point of
the lake, agreed to tx the line noythward or
southward from this point to the foEty-ninth par
aiie3, thence west to the summit Of the Rocky
mountains, the result of which is the hump on
the northern line Of Minnesota Over sixty
years OF conference and diplomacy were re-
quired TO agree upon the boundary low located
by the line OF obeifsks extending from the Lake
OF the " GODS TO the Gulf of Georgia and twenty
six years more elapsed before Kaiser Wilhelm
drew his blue pencil through the Canal de Haro
to the sea instead Of through Rosario straits,
nnaiiy settling without appeal our northwestern
boundary.
After its establishment, in 1876, the line re-
manned purely imaginary like any other par
ailel until 1857, when an English and American
commission began the work of locating and
marking the boundary The initial point was
located with the greatest possible accuracy.
Many months were consumed in making the
astronomical observations. /. was not until
lS53 that the work of marking the boundary
was commenced William Nunks and Enoch
Compton. of Fidaigo, were engaged by the
American commission in packing supplies, and
J. G. Bertrand, now living at Blaine, was en-
ployed by the British commission. To posr-
lNTKLLiGEScER reporter who recently saw
niin IN MS nome Alf. Bertrand related
the incidents connected with the work. The To-
cation OF the line through the dense forest vii
derness, through the Cascade mountain range
and over the uninhabited plains beyond to the
summit of the Rocky mountains was an i'm
meDse undertaking and vas not completed until
lS62
The American commission wen: ahead, begin
ming where the city of Blaine now stands, cut
ting swath forty feet wide through the dense
forest for q distance of ten miles. They then
went ahead ten miles, leaving ten-mile section
for the British, and continued IN this way, each
party clearing alternate sections OF ten miles. 1t
was necessary to make roads for packing sup
plies. The engineers went ahead, taking obser-
vationsby night, tracing the forty ninth parallel
through the trackless wilderness and over the
mountain crags and chassns by the stars
Among the American army on this expedition
was Lieutenant Custer, the lamented hero OF the
battle OF the Little Big Horn Lieutenant For
sythe. who was also in one of the companies
was lately brought 10 national notice BIZ his sus-
pension for unsoldierly conduct at the battle of
Wounded Knee in the late Sioux war;
For twenty four miles the line was cut through
timbesed agricultural land to the foothills. and