 Nestled in the rough mountainous country west of the cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico, Boundary Monument 127 is a significant geographic turning point for the U.S.-Mexican border - and is located on the WRONG spot! Read the full story of this 170-year-old incorrect border marking HERE after viewing these images from the historic Arizona-Sonora boundary angle along the U.S.-Mexican border west of Nogales. Please leave a comment at the end of your journey here.  The “Boundary Angle Canyon” where U.S.-Mexico Border Monument 127 is located is accessible via Forest Service Road 222.  The “Boundary Angle Arroyo” where there used to be a narrow trail to Boundary Monument 127.   Boundary Monument 127 has marked the Arizona-Sonora boundary angle since June 1855. “Boundary Angle Canyon” is a mostly remote area, but U.S. border wall system construction in summer and fall 2020 made this corner of the Pajarito Mountains a busy crossroads.  Boundary Monument 126 and its bulldozed hillside east of Monument 127.  The mountainside northwest of Boundary Monument 127 has been destroyed to serve as a batch plant for preparing border wall concrete. By November 2020 Boundary Monument 128 (on the cut-out mountain to the left) became the base camp for construction work heading deeper into the rugged Pajarito Mountains.  From “Boundary Angle Canyon” the slight change in the U.S.-Mexican border is hard to see, but from a distance to the east the change in the border’s direction is made clear by the destructive border wall’s footprint.  Though located on the wrong spot for 170 years, Boundary Monument 127 still marks the angle along the Arizona-Sonora border between Nogales and the Colorado River. Will this neglected and endangered monument – which includes a handwritten inscription from the 1855 U.S. Boundary Commission – survive amid this altered landscape?
4 Comments
M.C.
1/24/2021 11:26:26
This is a very interesting article. I enjoyed reading how the mistake was made and the implications it has to this day. However, I am wondering if the author was able to do some research as to why the "new Commission did not have the power to realign the border" when they discovered this "monumental error" 40 years later in the 1890s. What, or who, exactly prevented the correction of this mistake?
JM
1/25/2021 15:34:57
Well-put
JM
1/25/2021 15:33:25
The marker is placed in the wrong spot??
Trish Anderson
2/9/2021 20:03:14
I really enjoyed this article. I had no idea the border was actually marked in the wrong space. It really makes one scratch their head that things like this can go unnoticed and unmentioned in history. I also really liked the history of the border and especially the photographs along the two Nogales cities. Easy to follow and full of interesting information! Leave a Reply. |
Carlos Parra
U.S.-Mexican, Latino, and Border Historian Archives
January 2021
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