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Have you ever wondered why Montana looks the way it is?? Why do we have that funny western border? Then Idaho looks a bit weird in itself. Why that panhandle? Some maintain that Montana stole part of Idaho way back when.

In 1863 President Lincoln sent well-respected lawyer Sidney Edgerton to the Idaho Territory as Chief Justice. He immediately recognized that the remote gold fields would be extremely valuable to the Union and the gold camps needed their own territorial government. He convinced Congress in May of 1864 to create the Montana Territory through the Organic Act. President Lincoln immediately appointed Sidney Edgerton as the first governor of the Montana Territory. Now to divide the territories.

According to some the first congress drew the western boundary of the Montana Territory along the Rocky Mountains. But Sidney Edgerton knew that the Bitterroot Mountains were impassable in the wintertime. He coaxed Congress to move the Border 130 miles west to the crest of the Bitterroot Mountains so the Bitterroot and Deer Lodge Valleys could be closer to territorial government. Idaho protested, but Edgerton and the settlers got their way. Edgerton theorized that giving Western Montana on the East side of the Rocky Mountains to Idaho would not make a lot of sense, as they would have basically been isolated from the rest of the State of Idaho.

Now, zoom in on the spot the border splits from the Continental Divide and the Panhandle. According to the records of the Idaho State Historical Society, “The standing myth is that originally that the Montana-Idaho border was supposed to be along the Continental Divide instead of the Bitterroot Range where the state line is located today. The surveyors in charge of surveying the Montana-Idaho border got lost. The Bitterroot Range is so rugged that when the surveying team finally reached the Canadian border, they team said heck with it and weren’t going to go back and correct their mistake. Their mistake resulted in Idaho being only forty-five miles in length along the Canadian border.”

There are variations on the myth of the misguided surveyors getting lost. Some say the team got drunk and didn’t know where they were. Others say that they were bribed by Montana’s less upstanding citizens. Then there’s - they got gold fever so bad that they couldn’t focus on their job. More forgiving theories suggest that the surveying team had faulty equipment. However, no matter how you look at it, looks like Montana took a bite out of Idaho which left Idaho a much smaller state.

Sanger in 1866 states: “However, in looking at the 38th congress, the very congress that commissioned Montana as its own territory, the original location of the Montana-Idaho border was the Bitterroot Mountain Range not the Continental Divide as it states in the myth. As stated by the 38th congress, the western boundary of Montana territory would be, ‘following the crest of the Rocky Mountains northward till its intersection with the Bitter Root Mountains; thence northward along the crest of said Bitter Root Mountains to its intersection with the thirty-ninth degree of longitude west of Washington; thence along said thirty-ninth degree of longitude northward to the boundary line of the British possessions.’ This boundary would later on become the Montana-Idaho state border. “

Other historians write that the 45th Parallel was important in the northern boundary set. The Oregon Treaty stipulated that the boundary between the two nations would follow the 49th parallel of latitude from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia in the Pacific Ocean. However, due to surveying inaccuracies, the border was shifted slightly south to the 45th parallel, which is approximately halfway between the equator and the North Pole.

After the treaty was ratified, the U.S. government dispatched surveyors to establish the precise location of the boundary. In the late 19th century, official survey teams were tasked with mapping and marking the border. They erected markers, known as boundary monuments, at regular intervals along the 45th parallel to define the boundary.

Over the years, there have been minor adjustments to the Idaho-Montana border. These adjustments were primarily made to correct surveying errors and ensure the border aligned with the intended latitude line. The most notable adjustment occurred in 1900, when the border was shifted slightly north near the Bitterroot Valley to match the 45th parallel more accurately.

“Today, the Idaho-Montana border remains an important geographical and administrative division between the two states. It spans approximately 600 miles and passes through diverse landscapes, including mountains, forests, and prairies.”

While it is fun to say that a bunch of drunken surveyors is the reason the state boundary exists in such an odd shape, many maintain “that the Montana-Idaho border is truly the result of politics and represents the power of a ticked off congressional representative with a suitcase full of gold and very influential friends.”