Preston Monument

The Preston Monument is the common name for a stone marker at the tri-point (the place where three states meet) of Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico.

In 1902, Preston's success in establishing the northwest corner of the State of Texas was published in a bulletin of the U.S. Geological Survey.

[3][4] The current marker is of a modern concrete rectangular base with an erect, granite stone pillar, with its brass disk removed by vandals and replaced by a nail.

[3] An 1881 marker is nearby[5] which matches the description of the one erected by Richard O. Chaney and William W. Smith in the fall of 1881 when they surveyed the Cimarron meridian, the western border of Oklahoma.

[2] The old limestone marker is about 929 feet (283 m) north of the granite Preston monument, placing it in modern-day Colorado.

The tri-point for Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico is supposed to be the intersection between the 37th parallel north and the 103rd meridian west.

All of these were supposed to mark 37°N, 103°W: John Major searched for the lost northwest corner of Texas on his 1874 survey, but did not find it.

[7] Richard O. Chaney and William W. Smith established the Cimarron meridian in 1881, setting the monuments at two tri-points on the western edge of No Man's Land before Oklahoma was admitted as a State.