Navajo Meridian and Baseline

The Navajo Meridian, established in 1869,^[1] is one of the two principal meridians for Arizona, the other being the Gila and Salt River Meridian. Its initial point was stated as latitude 35° 45' north, longitude 108° 32' 45" west from Greenwich,^[2] but has been revised as 35°44′56″N 108°31′59″W / 35.74889°N 108.53306°W / 35.74889; -108.53306^[3] The Navajo Meridian and Baseline were used to set townships and ranges in a special survey for the original Navajo Reservation,^[4][5] and was set at the eastern boundary of that reservation.^[4] The Arizona lands surveyed using the Navajo Meridian and Baseline were ranges six west to ten west and townships one north to fourteen north,^[5] and included Canyon de Chelly National Monument.^[6]

While the above mentioned Arizona lands still reference the Navajo Meridian and Baseline,^[5] in New Mexico the surveys of lands originally surveyed under it were canceled in 1936,^[4] and have since been resurveyed using the New Mexico Meridian and Baseline.^[5] In Arizona, only the portions of the Navajo Reservation that are east of the Hopi Reservation were surveyed using the Navajo Meridian and Baseline.^[5][7]

Notes

1. ^ United States Geological Survey and United States Forest Service (May 2003) National Mapping Program Technical Instructions Part 5: Public Land Survey System Standards for USGS and USDA Forest Service Single Edition Quadrangle Maps, p. 5A-3, draft
2. ^ Raymond, William Galt (1914) (via Google Books). Plane Surveying for Use in the Classroom and Field. New York: American Book Company. p. 458. http://books.google.com/books?id=68I3AAAAMAAJ&dq. 
3. ^ "List of Meridians" from Manual of Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States; 1973, prepared by the Bureau of Land Management, Technical Bulletin 6; pub. U.S. Dept of Interior, from Principal Meridian Project
4. ^ ^{a b c} Hubbard, Bill, Jr. (2009) "Navajo Meridian, 1869" American Boundaries: The nation, the states, the rectangular survey University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p. 338, ISBN 978-0-226-35591-7
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} Zajac, Terrence M. and Myler, Charles E. (1996) Arizona Real Estate: Practice and Law Real Estate Education Co., Chicago, Illinois, ISBN 0-7931-0106-9
6. ^ "Act Authorizing Establishment of Canyon de Chelly NM" Appendix 6 of the Administrative History of Canyon de Chelly, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior
7. ^ Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior (3 February 2000) Federal Register 65(No.23): p. 5365

Coordinates: 35°44′56″N 108°31′59″W / 35.74889°N 108.53306°W / 35.74889; -108.53306