At the end of the Civil War, Americans started looking to the frontier in greater numbers. With more seeking their fortunes in the West, the federal government needed to survey, map, and make an accurate accounting of the land in the western territories. While the histories of the four major surveys have been told—Clarence King's survey of the fortieth parallel, George Wheeler's survey of the one hundredth meridian, Ferdinand Hayden's Yellowstone survey, and John Wesley Powell's survey of the Rocky Mountain region—many other important but lesser-known surveys were also conducted. One survey that greatly affected the history of Idaho, Utah, and Mormonism, particularly its legal history, was Daniel G. Major's survey of the Idaho/Utah border in 1872.1
When Major and his small party surveyed and redrew the boundary of Idaho and Utah at the forty-second parallel, little did he know the legal effect it would have on the area....
