International Boundary Marker No. 1, El Paso, TX
Posted by: 
Tygress
N 31° 47.034 W 106° 31.784
13R E 355162 N 3517501
Bordering Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico, this International Boundary Marker not only represents an international boundary but is also a monument to the professional skills of the American & Mexican surveyors who were called upon to locate it in 1855.
Waymark Code: WMKNPW
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/07/2014
Views: 11
WARNING!!! Visitors logging this site as a benchmark (http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=CE0665) and waymark WMBRK5 “International Boundary Marker #1” in U.S. Historic Survey Stones and Monuments (http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMBRK5_International_Boundary_Marker_1) caution visitors to be aware of where they are regarding the actual border. [Visitor experience varies depending on what Border Patrol Officers are present, but the monument itself may lie in Mexican Territory.] Border Patrol Officers are always about, and know about geocaching/waymarking and other sightseers to this historically significant spot. Be friendly & ask for advice regarding viewing.
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One of the many Texas Engineering Landmarks in celebration of Texas ASCE’s Centennial: 1913-2013 “Engineering a Better Texas.” Visit them all!
International Boundary Marker No. 1, Listed an ASCE Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1976
The Emory-Salazar Commission - a joint U.S.-Mexican team - showed both skill and fortitude in working together to define the 2,000-mile U.S. Southern border across wild, often dangerous territory. Requisitioned after the Mexican War ended in 1848, this was the first survey marking the official international boundary between the United States and Mexico. The survey extended west into the Pacific, ending eastward near El Paso and Juarez on the Rio Grande.
The easternmost point of the land boundary was marked by a four-sided marker in the same year that the team determined its location – 1855. The marker is located on the west bank near El Paso; its southern half lies in Mexico while its northern half rests in the United States. The monument is twelve feet in height with a width of five feet at the base. The monument was enhanced with a concrete base and a white marbleized concrete resurfacing in 1966.
Quoting the ASCE Historic Civil Engineering Landmark listing (http://www.asce.org/People-and-Projects/Projects/Landmarks/International-Boundary-Marker--1/)
William Emory was an 1831 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. When the Mexican War broke out, he was assigned as chief engineer officer to General Stephen Kearny, whose army traversed largely unknown territories in the West. The U.S. War Department would later print 10,000 copies of Emory's Notes of a Military Reconnaissance, which made a significant contribution to understanding the geography and topography of the Southwest.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 ended the Mexican War and ceded to the U.S. a vast expanse of land stretching from Texas to the Pacific and as far north as present-day Wyoming. The Rio Grande River became the official boundary between the two countries from El Paso east, but the treaty defined the western portion of the border only in principle.
It was the superb surveying skills of William Emory and the Emory-Salazar Commission that pinpointed the exact boundary between the U.S. and Mexico across some 2,000 miles of uncharted territory. The commission's pioneering work from 1848 to 1853 is commemorated by International Boundary Marker Number 1, a 12-foot high stone monument erected in 1855 on the west bank of the Rio Grande where the land border begins.
Facts
1. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded to the U.S. the territory that now comprises California, Nevada, Utah and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.
2. The boundary marker is located on the west bank of the Rio Grande in the state of New Mexico, its five-foot base bisected by the international border. In 1966, the stone monument was refaced with marbleized concrete and a new concrete base was installed.
Further reading:
Benchmark CE0665 listed via geocaching.com: (
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Texas Handbook Online: (
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RootsWeb/Ancestry.com (
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HistoricPlaces.net:
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Other waymarks:
International Boundary Marker #1 in U.S. Historic Survey Stones and Monuments (
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