Georgia Pushing To Move Tennessee Border

ATLANTA, GA — In the latest salvo fired in a 130-year-old Southeastern border dispute, Georgia lawmakers are calling for a three-state summit, with the goal of grabbing a one-mile tract of Tennessee land.

The Georgia House of Representatives has passed a resolution seeking a summit with the Peach State's two northern neighbors — Tennessee and North Carolina. The resolution asks the three states to come together to form a Boundary Line Commission to "proclaim the true boundary," between the states.

Georgia's northern border — or, if you prefer, Tennessee's southern — was set at the 35th parallel by Congress when Tennessee was admitted to the union in 1796, following the line set by the British between the colonies of Georgia and North Carolina.

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An 1818 survey set the current border, which was ratified by Tennessee's legislature, but not Georgia's.
All parties involved admit that, no, the border does not follow the 35th parallel. It's about one mile too far south.

But it's not just a desire to right a mapmaker's wrong that's inspiring Georgia's leaders. It's Atlanta's thirst.

Moving the border to the 35th parallel would give Georgia the southern bank of the Tennessee River as it bends through the Chattanooga area, thus allowing the construction of a pipeline lawmakers believe would alleviate Atlanta's water problems.

Georgia has sought resolution to the badly surveyed border several times beginning in 1887, but its largest city's persistent water problem has brought it to a head more frequently in the past decade.

"I just want to threaten them and then stick a straw into the Tennessee River," Butch Miller, the president Pro Tem of the Georgia State Senate, said during a hearing on the Georgia bill, according to the AJC.

In 2008, the Georgia General Assembly directed the governor to seek relief in the Supreme Court of the United States, which has original jurisdiction over interstate disputes. In 2013, a more pointed threat was leveled by the Peach State when it said if Tennessee did not settle, Georgia's attorney general would, in fact, file suit in the Supreme Court.

Such an effort, however, is unlikely to prevail according to most legal experts. Historically, the Supreme Court has been hesitant to get involved in such disputes. In 1893, in a similar case — State of Virginia v. State of Tennessee — the court ruled "A boundary line between States which has been run out ... and afterwards recognized and acquiesced in by them for a long course of years is conclusive...".

Thus, Georgia's recourse is to ask Tennessee to give the land away, which is unlikely. Even the resolution tacitly acknowledges this, setting the border commission to expire in December 2018, giving Tennessee and North Carolina precious little time to send representatives to the commission, which no one expects them to actually do.

Georgia's resolution also doesn't address what might happen to the rest of Tennessee's southern border which follows the erroneous survey line from the Appalachians to the Mississippi and would, presumably, change the state's border with Alabama and Mississippi, as well.

Tennessee's eastern border with North Carolina was intended to follow the highest ridge of the mountains and, in fact, it does for the most part, except for the final 16 miles, which run a straight line south-southwest about six miles east of the ridgeline. The reason the surveyors decided to shoot a straight line is unknown, though legend insists the surveying party caught sight of a tavern and decided to make quick work of the rest of the border.

Whatever the inspiration, it was a significant mistake, as it also put the Copper Basin and the Burra Burra Mine, key sources of metal and revenue, within Tennessee.

Patch's J.R. Lind in Nashville contributed to this report.

Photo courtesy State of Tennessee