Years ago, the boundary between North Carolina and South Carolina was approximated, and marked by hatchet marks on trees after land surveying in the 18th century.
Ooops! They were a little off, and with GPSes, they're re-surveying for greater precision.
The result is that about 90 properties, and their owners, might suddently be residents of South Carolina instead of North Carolina, or the opposite.
Does that mean that they should stop being Tarheel or Wolfpack fans; and be Gamecock or Tiger fans? No, there's more at stake than that: which school their children may attend, property tax assessments, difference in laws under which they had habitually operated, and other daily uses of life. The news that you're really in another state and have to think of yourself as such may not be exactly good news for those put into this situation.
When I changed states, I expected that doing so would require some adjustments: driver's license, voter registration, where I shopped, and so forth; but that was expected with a move. But it's a different thing in this case. Those people remain put; the identity of their place of being changes in a dramatic way.
Apparently, these kind of boundary adjustments happened in the past, sometimes with less mutual accomodation. For example, the northern boundary of Georgia was apparently mis-surveyed in the 18th century (was alcohol somehow involved?), and a small section of Chattanooga might be in what Georgia currently claims. However, Georgia's prime interest was getting access to the Tennessee River for its water.
When it comes to a big money issue, states tend to be less accomodating. Apparently, this is not one on which a lot of money rides.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/03/23/2733726/committee-hashing-out-nc-sc-state.html
Ooops! They were a little off, and with GPSes, they're re-surveying for greater precision.
The result is that about 90 properties, and their owners, might suddently be residents of South Carolina instead of North Carolina, or the opposite.
Does that mean that they should stop being Tarheel or Wolfpack fans; and be Gamecock or Tiger fans? No, there's more at stake than that: which school their children may attend, property tax assessments, difference in laws under which they had habitually operated, and other daily uses of life. The news that you're really in another state and have to think of yourself as such may not be exactly good news for those put into this situation.
When I changed states, I expected that doing so would require some adjustments: driver's license, voter registration, where I shopped, and so forth; but that was expected with a move. But it's a different thing in this case. Those people remain put; the identity of their place of being changes in a dramatic way.
Apparently, these kind of boundary adjustments happened in the past, sometimes with less mutual accomodation. For example, the northern boundary of Georgia was apparently mis-surveyed in the 18th century (was alcohol somehow involved?), and a small section of Chattanooga might be in what Georgia currently claims. However, Georgia's prime interest was getting access to the Tennessee River for its water.
When it comes to a big money issue, states tend to be less accomodating. Apparently, this is not one on which a lot of money rides.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/03/23/2733726/committee-hashing-out-nc-sc-state.html
9 comments:
Very interesting.
Feelings in Tennessee were very strong about our boundary dispute. A common bumper sticker read "Atlanta Sucks," referring to its insatiable hunger for water.
Until very recent times, field surveying was really an approximation. I've been there, done that. Offshore geopositioning was something else; we could be accurate within 150 yards or so 100 miles out in the Gulf.
This is why when you buy a house you should always have a survey done. You never know where the old owners 'thought' their property was.
This is a fascinating issue that affects large numbers of people around the world. Consider the residents of the Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass/Lothringen, to the Germans) region of France/Germany that has been traded back and forth between the two countries many times over the centuries. And how about Poland, which has been fought over and reshaped so many times that I'm surprised anyone can tell what constitutes the "real" Poland? At least the issues in NC/SC are being fought out in the courts and not on the battlefield.
Michigan and Ohio once went to war over Toledo. Ohio lost and and had to keep it.
Jay
With NC/SC the stakes are slight; but I'm glad there's no heat over this.
Poland? For a while Germany, Russia, and Austria swallowed it whole.
Wow! That's amazing.
Oh, I thought it had to do with the Kamikaze traffic there.
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