‘At the round earth’s imagin’d corners…’ – John Donne 1572-1631
With his ‘imagin’d corners’ English poet John Donne was having a blast at the flat-earthers of his day. But as well as corners he would probably have struggled to find straight lines on a map.
Now as then, every border in Europe weaves its way down rivers and valleys, around the edges of fields and sometimes across mountain ranges. Every scrap of land has been fought over at some time or been the subject of some treaty or other. People a few hundred yards distant from each other can speak completely different languages.
Borders are also edges.
Less happens near them. Roads run parallel to them or avoid them completely. Crossing points are rare.
And if edges are relatively isolated from the main centre of a country or a state, how much more remote are those places where the border comes to a sharp point and changes direction abruptly?
In Europe, borders look as if a spider with a pen attached to one leg has been set off to wander at random across the map.
In North America, the native peoples not being asked, there were no constraints about where to draw lines. Straight line borders are the order of the day. And with straight lines come corners, proper corners with right angles.
Montana’s a good example.
To the North and East, along most of the South and in the far North West, the lines on the map run as straight as you can get and change direction at right angles. Only Idaho, wandering down the South West from the county of Sanders to – eventually – Gallatin, spoils what would otherwise be a perfect rectangle. We will ignore Idaho.
Twenty years ago I couldn’t have done much more than peer at borders on a small scale map and wonder what they’re like. Now I can light up my imagination with the treasures of the web…
North West Montana – Idaho to the left, Montana to the right: this and other terrain images from Google Maps
The far North West corner of Montana is part of the Federal Kaniksu National Forest. A forest trail – NF-871 – heads North up the West side of the appropriately named American Mountain, almost pokes itself into Canada, doesn’t like what it sees and heads South again.
North East Montana
Over in the North East there’s something else going on. The nearest town of Plentywood is a few miles away to the left of the picture and the land is a lot flatter. The terrain is scattered with lakes – the white area at the bottom of the aerial view is one . The land is farmed. The wonderful Montana Cadastral map tells me it’s down to summer grazing and fallow and it’s owned by Richard and Renatta Westgard of the town of Westby. Hello Richard, hello Renatta.
Weirdly, a tiny strip of land adjoining the Canadian border – about 50 feet wide, a mile and a half long and abutting North Dakota – is owned by the Defense Department/Army Corps of Engineers. Perhaps they know the Canadians are going to invade here and it hides some very long, thin military weapon..
South East Montana
Down in the South East, someone has taken a photo of a stone marker at the precise corner of the state, surrounded by a fence in an open field. It’s on the web but copyrighted and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by using it here. Find the spot on Google Maps and drag the yellow man over it. It looks a lonely place.
Albion school – by Elifino57 on Geolocation, licensed under creative commons
A short way West a minor road crosses the Montana border into South Dakota. I look more closely at the map. It’s called ‘Albion Road.’ I follow it northwards and in 25-26 miles it hits Montana State Highway 323 and the ghost town of Albion. The town’s post office closed in 1964. A deserted and shuttered school and an abandoned community hall remain. For the first time since starting this blog I feel the loneliness of small communities in a vast space and the loss when they die.
South West Montana
Here we are at the last, South West, corner of Montana where the border with Wyoming turns South for 20 miles or so before Idaho squiggles off to the left.
We’re just inside the boundary of Yellowstone National Park at its western edge. US Highway 191 – the Gallatin Road – runs from Bozeman in the North to West Yellowstone, the state’s most southerly town. The precise boundary point is just North of Terminal Monument Creek and the nearest (un-named) peak in Montana is about 8,700 ft. above sea level.
Only wiggly Idaho prevents a complete circumnavigation of Montana by straight line and right-angled corner back to the Kaniksu National Forest.
Dreams of Montana 