…or so the “It’s True!” column in the newspaper tells me - apparently the result of some sort of border/surveying dispute.
Which three days each year does this happen?
Never heard of it and it is basically impossible at face value. Do you have a link?
No. Just the “fact” given in the newspaper.
Would a child born in the area during those three days be a US citizen? Are the normal federal and state laws suspended for three days each year, resulting in a crime wave?
Ahah! It helps if I search on the imperial equivalent of 3885 km[sup]2[/sup], which just happens to be about 1500 miles[sup]2[/sup]. Which leads to this Trivia Page entry:
The original source is given as:
It all sounds rather dubious. Can anyone confirm that this area of land is indeed “a free and independent kingdom three days each year”?
This sounds a little more plausible:
I live and work in Breckenridge (well, real close anyway). And I work for the GIS department for Summit County.
The story I heard, was that Breckenridge was mistakenly left off of a USGS map some years ago. Hence, the ‘Kingdom’ of Breckenridge.
When I see something sourced to Wallechinsky & Wallace, my dubious-o-meter always seems to go off right away.
Hell, we don’t let other countries be “free and independent kingdoms.” You really think we’d allow something like that within our own borders? The “People’s Almanac” was compiled by people who spent a great deal of their day smoking their running socks.
From the cite above:
Uh, isn’t a strip of land 90 miles x 30 miles actually 2700 square miles?
Jesus. What are the odds that such a unique topic would come up on these boards for a tiny little parcel of land regardings it historical survey and geographic history, and someone from the friggin’ GIS department of that county would be a long standing member on this board?!? Unbelievable!
Preach it. The People’s Almanac was cool as shit when I was in the fifth grade, but then when I actually started thinking about some of what they said it just didn’t make sense. Like that guy who ‘disappeared’ into the fourth dimension. Everything about that story sounded more like he fell into a sinkhole or something and met the unfortunate fate of having a stupid family.
If laws are suspended, how could there possibly be any crime?
The United States most assuredly secured sovereignty over the area in question via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and it has been part of the United States ever since. The fact that some dingbat left it off of a survey map, decades later and long after the demarcation of the frontier, affects that not in the slightest.
As for the three days, it’s a little joke indulged in by the good citizens of Breckenridge, much like the “Conch Republic” in the Florida keys. Rest assured, if you commit a federal crime during the annual Kingdom-fest, the feds will have no trouble in prosecuting you to the fullest extent of the law.
Which is another way of saying, as so often, “It’s true!” is a synonym for, “It’s bullshit!”
Holy smokes, there’s another 1200 square miles of independent land!
Presumably the strip in question isn’t very close to rectangular. Much in the way that Israel is sometimes described as 263 miles by 71 miles and yet only has an area of 7,992 sq miles instead of 18,673 sq miles.
Shhh!! Don’t tell the feds!
If this was even remotely true the wackos who consider themselves to be libertarian would be there in droves.
Not quite the same thing, but I’ve heard similar stories about how the wedge of land on the south end of the Oregon-Idaho border formed by the meridians not lining up belongs to neither Oregon or Idaho. If you look at the land survey grid around the area, it seems to give it to Oregon, but there are some very funny shaped sections in there.
I’m guessing since the area in question is miserable scrubland, it’s never been an issue.
My understanding is that borders are as surveyed and not legally described so if the original surveying were off but accepted by the states in question, then it is the legal border.
With the advent of GPS, it would be an interesting question if states would be willing to resurvey their borders in accordance with the legal description.
I meet a guy once who found a tiny sliver of unclaimed land that existed in Denver? Colorado.
I think it had never been claimed because of survey errors that created a tiny no mans land.
He made a claim for it though some legal process and got it. Built a house on it too.
At least thats how I recall the story.