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Canada/US geography question

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:57 pm
by Bob Juch
Which US states have at least part of their land area north of (above) the southernmost part of Canada?

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:42 pm
by TheConfessor
Alaska, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:46 pm
by macrae1234
Spoiler
Middle Island in Lake Erie the southernmost tip of Canada lies just south of the latitude of the the border between California and Oregon so

Alaska
Washington
Oregon
California
Montana
Idaho
Utah
Nevada
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Illinois
Ohio
Pennsylvania
New York
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Rhode Island

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:44 am
by ulysses5019
I have a question for loonies and non loonies. Canada has it's own "four corners". What provinces/territories make up the four corners?

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:02 am
by TheConfessor
ulysses5019 wrote:I have a question for loonies and non loonies. Canada has it's own "four corners". What provinces/territories make up the four corners?
SK, MB, NT, NU

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:29 am
by Bob Juch
TheConfessor wrote:Alaska, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming
Bingo!

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:50 am
by mntetn
That would be a great question for the show: how many states ...? a. 25, b. 26, c. 27, d. 28. You have 30 seconds.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:54 am
by MarleysGh0st
mntetn wrote:That would be a great question for the show: how many states ...? a. 25, b. 26, c. 27, d. 28. You have 30 seconds.
Don't give the question writers/bean counters any ideas! :shock:

As you're walking away, Meredith would add her "Well, now you know" comment, I'm sure. :P

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:06 am
by gsabc
mntetn wrote:That would be a great question for the show: how many states ...? a. 25, b. 26, c. 27, d. 28. You have 30 seconds.
I hope it would be a high-level question, allowing 45 seconds. I'd also word it as what percentage of US states rather than absolute numbers. "A. Less than 10% B. 10-25% C. 25-50% D. Greater than 50%" Knowledge of Canada's southernmost point narrows it down easily to two, and then you start estimating or counting.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:23 am
by andrewjackson
Spoiler
Indiana makes the list by less than 5 miles. It was not always so because the southern border of Michigan was originally established as the line of latitude equal to the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. Indiana appealed to Congress when it applied for statehood to move the line 10 miles north so the state would have some access to ports on the Lake. That pushed Indiana just slightly north of Middle Island, Ontario.

New Jersey misses being on the list by about 23 miles.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:23 am
by macrae1234
Northwest Territories
Saskatchewan
Nunavut
Manitoba

From someone who lives in one of the US states and worked for Geological Survey and got to within a few miles of the other, they didn't have a marker

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:41 am
by mntetn
MarleysGh0st wrote:Don't give the question writers/bean counters any ideas!
Just tryin' to be ontopicocious, y'know.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:15 pm
by tanstaafl2
macrae1234 wrote:Northwest Territories
Saskatchewan
Nunavut
Manitoba

From someone who lives in one of the US states and worked for Geological Survey and got to within a few miles of the other, they didn't have a marker
Even if they did have a marker it would only be visible during the 2 weeks of summer in August when the frozen tundra melts, right?

Just kidding! It is at a similar latitude as Anchorage.

So it would be nearly 3 weeks...

Perhaps a really tough one would be the four north, south, east and west mainland extremes of Canada similar to the four extremes of the mainland coterminus 48 states.

I don't know the answer. I seem to recall looking for it once upon a time but never found a satisfactory answer.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:32 pm
by andrewjackson
Not sure if these are 100% correct but they seem to be commonly accepted:

Northernmost point, mainland: Murchison Promontory, Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut (71°58'N)
Southernmost point, mainland: Point Pelee, Ontario (41°54'23"N)
Easternmost point, mainland: Cape St. Charles, Labrador (55°37'W)
Westernmost point, mainland: border of Yukon Territory and Alaska (141°00'W)

Murchison Promontory is slightly north of Point Barrow, AK, (71°23'N) the northernmost point of the U.S.

Cape St. Charles is the easternmost point of the North American mainland.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:41 pm
by andrewjackson
macrae1234 wrote:Northwest Territories
Saskatchewan
Nunavut
Manitoba

From someone who lives in one of the US states and worked for Geological Survey and got to within a few miles of the other, they didn't have a marker
Apparently there is a marker at the Canadian Four Corners. It was erected in 1962 when it was only a three-way border. I found an online account of some people visiting it. It takes a long drive, float-plane ride, boat trip, and then a hike through a bog to get to it. It is one meter tall.

Image

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:52 pm
by silverscreenselect
andrewjackson wrote: New Jersey misses being on the list by about 23 miles.
New Jersey misses out on a lot of things by 23 miles or more.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:54 pm
by silverscreenselect
andrewjackson wrote:
macrae1234 wrote:Northwest Territories
Saskatchewan
Nunavut
Manitoba

From someone who lives in one of the US states and worked for Geological Survey and got to within a few miles of the other, they didn't have a marker
Apparently there is a marker at the Canadian Four Corners. It was erected in 1962 when it was only a three-way border. I found an online account of some people visiting it. It takes a long drive, float-plane ride, boat trip, and then a hike through a bog to get to it. It is one meter tall.
When I was into hiking, 15 years and far more pounds ago, I once hiked to Ellicott's Rock, which marks the boundary of Georgia, North and South Carolina. It's in the middle of a stream and the trail is accessible only from the South Carolina side.

It was a long hike.

When I got there, it wasn't worth the trouble.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:00 pm
by SportsFan68
andrewjackson wrote:
macrae1234 wrote:Northwest Territories
Saskatchewan
Nunavut
Manitoba

From someone who lives in one of the US states and worked for Geological Survey and got to within a few miles of the other, they didn't have a marker
Apparently there is a marker at the Canadian Four Corners. It was erected in 1962 when it was only a three-way border. I found an online account of some people visiting it. It takes a long drive, float-plane ride, boat trip, and then a hike through a bog to get to it. It is one meter tall.
That's about what the U.S. Four Corners marker looked like the first time I saw it, except it was only a concrete survey marker about a third of a meter high. We drove to it, and there was a sign looking back the way we had come: Road not passable beyond this point. We drove back that way anyway.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:09 pm
by andrewjackson
SportsFan68 wrote:
andrewjackson wrote:
macrae1234 wrote:Northwest Territories
Saskatchewan
Nunavut
Manitoba

From someone who lives in one of the US states and worked for Geological Survey and got to within a few miles of the other, they didn't have a marker
Apparently there is a marker at the Canadian Four Corners. It was erected in 1962 when it was only a three-way border. I found an online account of some people visiting it. It takes a long drive, float-plane ride, boat trip, and then a hike through a bog to get to it. It is one meter tall.
That's about what the U.S. Four Corners marker looked like the first time I saw it, except it was only a concrete survey marker about a third of a meter high. We drove to it, and there was a sign looking back the way we had come: Road not passable beyond this point. We drove back that way anyway.
Really? Hmm. I first went there in 1978. I had seen pictures from when other members of my family had visited in the 60s. I didn't realize that there used to be an upright marker.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:25 pm
by ulysses5019
I was curious about the geographic center of California. Several towns claimed ownership but it's located in a field. There were no signs other than a bend in the road and a gap in the fence. I think I hiked about 100 yards and there was a surveyor's stick with a yellow flag stapled to it. I think they replaced it with a plaque.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:51 pm
by tanstaafl2
andrewjackson wrote:Not sure if these are 100% correct but they seem to be commonly accepted:

Northernmost point, mainland: Murchison Promontory, Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut (71°58'N)
Southernmost point, mainland: Point Pelee, Ontario (41°54'23"N)
Easternmost point, mainland: Cape St. Charles, Labrador (55°37'W)
Westernmost point, mainland: border of Yukon Territory and Alaska (141°00'W)

Murchison Promontory is slightly north of Point Barrow, AK, (71°23'N) the northernmost point of the U.S.

Cape St. Charles is the easternmost point of the North American mainland.
Thanks. Since I posted this I had managed to dig up 3 of the 4. Do you find the answers on one particular site?

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:11 pm
by SportsFan68
andrewjackson wrote: Really? Hmm. I first went there in 1978. I had seen pictures from when other members of my family had visited in the 60s. I didn't realize that there used to be an upright marker.
I dunno if you can call a foot high cement survey marker "upright," AJ. I was trying to cause a smile, but I see that I overshot or undershot.

Sorry to mislead you.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:54 pm
by andrewjackson
SportsFan68 wrote:
andrewjackson wrote: Really? Hmm. I first went there in 1978. I had seen pictures from when other members of my family had visited in the 60s. I didn't realize that there used to be an upright marker.
I dunno if you can call a foot high cement survey marker "upright," AJ. I was trying to cause a smile, but I see that I overshot or undershot.

Sorry to mislead you.
No worries. This is what it looks like now:

Image

and apparently back in the 60s: You are saying there was something upright before this, I guess?

Image

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:57 pm
by andrewjackson
tanstaafl2 wrote:
andrewjackson wrote:Not sure if these are 100% correct but they seem to be commonly accepted:

Northernmost point, mainland: Murchison Promontory, Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut (71°58'N)
Southernmost point, mainland: Point Pelee, Ontario (41°54'23"N)
Easternmost point, mainland: Cape St. Charles, Labrador (55°37'W)
Westernmost point, mainland: border of Yukon Territory and Alaska (141°00'W)

Murchison Promontory is slightly north of Point Barrow, AK, (71°23'N) the northernmost point of the U.S.

Cape St. Charles is the easternmost point of the North American mainland.
Thanks. Since I posted this I had managed to dig up 3 of the 4. Do you find the answers on one particular site?
I went to wikipedia first and then confirmed each point on some other websites. Wikipedia had them all right as far as I can tell.

Re: Canada/US geography question

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:25 pm
by SportsFan68
andrewjackson wrote: and apparently back in the 60s: You are saying there was something upright before this, I guess?
Great photo! Kids just love to be in all four states at once.

OK, adults too.

Yes, what I'm remembering was before that, but I don't know that I'd call it "upright." It looked like this:

Image

Except a little smaller and definitely less greenery. No greenery at all, in fact, middle of the desert and all, but you get the idea. And it had a survey marker buried in the top center. it's probably still there under the monument in your early photo. Heck, it's probably still there under the current monument.