One-Forty-One or Fight?

He had bought a large map representing the sea,
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.

"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
But we've got our brave Captain to thank."
(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best--
A perfect and absolute blank!"

As Lewis Carroll of "Alice in Wonderland" fame observes in this passage from "The Hunting of the Snark," mapmaking does not always have to be a tedious chore. However, in another of Carroll's works, he demonstrates that it may not always be easy, either. In "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded," a German professor explains that his country's cartographers experimented with maps of larger and larger scale until they finally made one at a scale of a mile to the mile. "It has never been spread out yet," he says. "The farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So now we use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."

Carroll's humor aside, mapmaking is a serious business. Most maps are based on land surveys, and by the mid-1920s, the problems of incorporating different surveys in the various states into a matching picture were getting out of hand. Therefore, during the five-year period 1927-1932, adjustments were made that fused all the various surveys into a unified whole. A basic triangulation station near the center of the conterminous United States at Meades Ranch in Kansas was designated as the point of origin of all North American triangulation nets. From there, networks extended across the United States and into parts of Canada and Mexico, and the triangulation net as a whole was called the "1927 North American Datum." However, the networks did not connect to Alaska. In fact, Alaska was not directly tied to the lower 48 until World War II, when a single arc of triangulation was made along the Alcan Highway. Until that time, all relative positions had been based on astronomical observations.

By the late 1960s, it was becoming obvious that further adjustments needed to be made. There were several reasons for this. At the time, Alaska still had only the single narrow traverse to link it with the rest of the states. It was bound to be inaccurate to some degree.

Also, gradual crustal movements over the years had physically altered the shape of North America. Yearly movements of 2 inches (5 cm) are not uncommon, and single events, such as the 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake, have resulted in large horizontal (and vertical) displacements. For example, parts of the eastern Kenai Peninsula were shifted as much as 70 feet (21 m) to the south-southeast in 1964. Finally, improved instrumentation and methods (including the use of geodetic satellites) were becoming available, and many of the older measurements could be refined.

In 1971, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering laid the plans for a complete resurvey of North America to be accomplished over the following 10 years. The results of that project are now being compiled, and will be known as the "1983 North American Datum."

What does all this mean for Alaska and Canada? Well, for one thing, with the new adjustments most Alaskans will find themselves on the map about 450 feet (135 m) to the southwest of their previous latitude and longitude. Even if "grandfather rights" did not exist (and they certainly do), this means nothing in a practical sense, because property boundaries are established on the basis of a local system of townships and ranges only indirectly related to global geographical coordinates.

However, the 141st meridian which forms the straight portion of Alaska's border with Canada will be adjusted to about 360 feet (110 m) east of the present boundary. Does this mean that the two countries are going to have to cooperate in cutting a new tree line along the border and reseeding the old one? Or that a few Canadian residents should be paying Alaska property taxes? No. Although the imaginary line of longitude will be corrected for the benefit of future surveys, the physical boundary on the ground will not change.

The Canadians rallied on hearing the news
Of the terrible borderline flap.
But Alaska said, "Boys, you have nothing to lose
From a pencil-thin line on a map."