The Rio Grande River meanders widely, and in 1906 private irrigation company simplified one of those meanders by cutting a channel across it to shorten the river, essentially changing the US/Mexico border and leaving the American residents of the village of Rio Rico in Mexico isolated. When that was discovered, the government was like, no big deal, and made the irrigation company pay Rio Rico's residents some money. They were still US citizens, but eventually the oxbow lake left by the re-channeled river dried up and eventually no one knew where the boundaries were. The village made the most of their status during Prohibition, but the anomaly was re-discoverd in the 1960s, which led to further chaos. It's quite a story. (via Damn Interesting)
3 comments:
Reminds me of part of Illinois that is west of the Mississippi River--but this was due to natural happenstance: https://americanprofile.com/articles/kaskaskia-the-only-illinois-town-west-of-the-mississippi-river/
The same thing happened in Iowa- the Missouri River makes up the Western border of the state. EXCEPT: the town of Carter Lake, Iowa somehow ended up WEST of the Missouri river. And to compound things, the only way to access the town is by going through Omaha, Nebraska first. And to compound things further, the main way to access the Omaha airport is to go through Iowa (Carter Lake)!
That's only fair, Mark ... the De Soto Bend (near Missouri Valley IA, about thirty miles north of Omaha NE) is actually a part of Nebraska, despite being on the Iowa side of the current channel of the Missouri, since the state borders follow what WAS the Missouri River channel a hundred or so years ago.
-"BB"-
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