Tri-Cornered State

September 20, 2015 6:30 AM

In search of trifinia Even for geographical completists, visiting all of the United States' trifinia, or places where three states meet, is an often overlooked pleasure.

Brian Butler's website, The Corner Corner (linked in the article), details both US and Canadian trifinia, with photos of each trifinium visited by him. Or why not browse the Historical Markers Database to find some markers on current or former US state lines? And for true enthusiasts, the Boundary Point discussion list is where it's at.

posted by chainsofreedom (24 comments total)

“Haven't we stood in five different states long enough?”
posted by Fizz at 6:35 AM on September 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Harper's Ferry has always been a favorite spot to stop on road trips, you can even walk out on the tall railroad bridge that crosses the river where the borders meet.
posted by trackofalljades at 6:45 AM on September 20, 2015

I live less than 10 miles from one of these - the Harper's Ferry one, in fact. It's a pretty cool landmark to use when trying to explain to people where I live!
posted by kcds at 7:21 AM on September 20, 2015

People line up and pay to stand in the four-corners spot? Okay, lining up maybe if the line's not too long. But paying? No thanks, I can see the spot from here.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:30 AM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

My family paid to stand on Four Corners when we were on vacation in the Southwest. I don't remember much about it as I was suffering from pneumonia pretty badly at the time and was busy hacking up a lung.
posted by chainsofreedom at 7:33 AM on September 20, 2015

In Breaking Bad, Skylar doesn't have to pay or wait in line when she visits.

Also, I wonder if the monument got more popular after being featured in the show.
posted by Gymnopedist at 7:45 AM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

No thanks, I can see the spot from here.

But can you feel it? That feeling of being in many places at once.
posted by Fizz at 8:05 AM on September 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Okay it costs five bucks and the site is owned and operated by the Navajo nation as it's on their land. Five dollars is not so bad.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:10 AM on September 20, 2015 [10 favorites]

Also there are food trucks selling fry bread. Mmmmm, fry bread.
posted by chainsofreedom at 8:26 AM on September 20, 2015 [7 favorites]

My best friend and I used to talk about going on what we called the "Coast to Coast and Centermost" tour, a trip from Key West, FL to the geographic center of the contiguous US, up to the geographic center of the entire US, on to the geographic center of North America, and then finishing up in Cape Flattery, WA. While that may still happen, I think I'd also enjoy visiting the four of these trifinia that are in Georgia. Stuff like this appeals to me for no reason that I can explain, other than I think it's kind of neat.
posted by ralan at 8:33 AM on September 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Good luck finding the Vermont/New Hampshire/Massachusetts trifinium, which is a few miles from my house and is under water in the Connecticut River. The Vermont/New Hampshire border is defined as the western shore of the River at the low water mark. That line was settled in a 1933 Supreme Court decision. However, because of dam construction downriver, the actual monument marking the southeast point of Vermont (mentioned in the linked decision) is nearly always under water. There is another marker some distance inland on the VT/MA line, describing the trifinium marker's location as being so many feet east of that point.
posted by beagle at 8:58 AM on September 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

"Connecticut-Rhode Island-New York"? Wouldn't that be in the ocean?

Oh. I guess it is.
posted by ardgedee at 10:14 AM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

People line up and pay to stand in the four-corners spot?

I will never tire of white people bitching about having to pay Native Americans for the right to stand on their land.

It's 3 bucks a head, ferchrissakes.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 10:59 AM on September 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

I already figured that out Pogo. See above. I didn't realize it was on Native Land until I googled it. I have no problem with it at all.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:12 AM on September 20, 2015

Years ago I took a train from Paris through Belgium to visit a friend in Germany. When I arrived, she inquired about my trip and I remarked that it was probably the first time in my life I had crossed two international land borders in the same day (and thus been on the ground in three countries in the same calendar day). We were having this discussion at her home in Aachen, about 5 km from the Vaalsberg, where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all meet, so she bundled me into the car and she drove me there. Where I come from, the international border is a bristling fortress staffed with surly and suspicious guards; I was charmed to see the meeting point was marked with a stone of no great size.

Readers, I crossed about twenty borders that day and amused myself for a few minutes by playing Stupid Border Tricks ("Hmmmm, can I hop over Belgium into Germany?")
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:30 AM on September 20, 2015

When the governor decided to prohibit staff from traveling out-of-state for political reasons, it wreaked havoc with numerous multi-state initiatives. So my client arranged to meet with her counterparts in Four Corners. They have a very funny photo of their business meeting. Each person is standing in his/her own state.
posted by carmicha at 12:17 PM on September 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

I've been within a tenth of a mile of the OK, CO, NM one. It was my first time in OK and I still haven't been in NM.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 12:39 PM on September 20, 2015

Trifinia are easy to find on a map, but can you identify them close up?
posted by pmdboi at 1:07 PM on September 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

When the map says a trifinium is "on private property," that means that it happens to be bound by three private parcels in each state respectively, right? Because the trifinium isn't actually "on" any property, no?
posted by threeants at 1:59 PM on September 20, 2015

threeants, while US property laws are by state and any property spanning state lines would have to be separately registered in the states it covers, the state lines and corner are dimensionless, so in a practical sense they are on the property, which can be described as the union of the separate properties as registered in the states, and access is subject to the landowner's terms according to the laws of whichever state you approach from.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:08 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I grew up where Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin meet. Iowa is where you go if you want to hang out at a casino. Illinois is a good place to buy booze because you don't have to pay 5 cents a can for deposit. You might as well pick up some lottery tickets while you're there because the jackpot is the biggest. If you're looking for fresh cheese, Landjaegers or fireworks, head into Wisconsin. Stop by a supper club while you're there and have a few brandy old fashioneds. Still thirsty at last call? Head back into Illinois, where you can continue imbibing until 3 or 3:30.

Once you've had enough sin, you can go beg for forgiveness at one of the hundreds of Catholic churches in the region. Don't worry--the congregation is just as hung over as you are.
posted by TrialByMedia at 5:30 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've driven through CalNevAri but I think it's 50 miles or so from the actual tri-state boundary (which is probably in the middle of a vast expanse of desert).

--nope, it's in the middle of the Colorado River, since that is the AZ/CA border. I guess there's probably not a monument there.
posted by mmoncur at 5:38 PM on September 20, 2015

Good luck getting to Canada's Four Corners . Years ago I read someone's travelogue of actually getting to the survey marker out there and it was quite the trek. Unfortunately my google-fu is failing me.
posted by 3urypteris at 11:31 PM on September 20, 2015

3urypteris, Brian Butler got there - it's one of the linked sites.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:14 AM on September 21, 2015