Colorado - New Mexico - Oklahoma

From the Colorado - Kansas - Oklahoma TriState point, we went south on a farm road to pick up US 57, then west to Boise City, Oklahoma, then northwest toward Kenton, in the heart of the Black Mesa area, which includes the highest point in Oklahoma. We decided to have a look at Black Mesa first, and turned right (north) on a road marked to "Black Mesa Summit", just before Kenton. After looking at some dinosaur tracks in the rock, we went a little farther, but it became obvious that there was no road to the top of the mesa, at least not from the north east. At that point, we checked the topographic map, and found that we were on the best road to the TriState point!

A note about the maps: I suppose it is not that unlikely that, in the western US, where state lines often follow round-numbered lines of latitude and longitude, some TriState points would fall right at quadsheet boundaries. This is an example. To the northwest of this TriState point is the Furnish Canyon East quad sheet. Apparently, no part of this quad is in Oklahoma, but a tiny strip is in New Mexico, since the Colorado - New Mexico line is amout 1-2 mm north of the 37th parallel on the map, which translates to about 24-48 meters on the ground. An image of the corner of that quad appears to the left. On the right is part of the quad to the southeast, Kenton,, which is maily in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma - New Mexico line is about 160 meters west of the 103rd meridian, perhaps a surveying "error" that favored Oklahoma. Anyway, a somewhat-larger chunk of that map is in the image to the right. The TriState point also shows on the Goodson School quadrangle to the southwest (not shown).

After taking photos, we took the gravel road into New Mexico, but soon ran into a "Private Road" sign, so we back-tracked to the TriState point and then back to Kenton, where we proceeded west into New Mexico, then south toward the New Mexico - Oklahoma - Texas point (see Story #10).