Page 25 - Geography/environment

Map of swelling soils in Colorado

Two kinks in the Colorado stateline
The southwest corner of Colorado has two kinks in the stateline. The kinks are the result of surveying errors made in 1868 and 1879.

                    click map for detail
The kinks gave Colorado a few thousand square feet of land from New Mexico and Utah.  New Mexico sued Colorado in the U.S. Supreme Court over the kink in their stateline in 1919, but the court ruled the kink had existed so long that it should be left alone. Only larger, more detailed maps show the kinks today.