Talk:Extreme points of the United States

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Regarding the lowest elevation, the article states: "Badwater Basin (Death Valley), California (-282 feet / -86 meters) — lowest point in all of US territory." This is not correct. The lowest point is the bottom of the Lake Superior rift valley (in Michigan) at 733 feet below sea level. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.42.71.103 (talk) 18:25, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Gene has it wrong below. The international date line, nor political boundaries, do not "override" the globe's latitude and longitude system which determines east and west. Nearly all geographic sources agree with this; thus, though it may seem odd to us, it doesn't to a Russian or Japanese person: both the eastern and westernmost points in the U.S. are in the Aleutians. ..... Office of the Geographer, US State Dept. Dlinth

Isn't the easternmost point in the United States somewhere in the Aleutian Islands? Since the Islands cross the 180th meridian, those closest to Russia are technically in the East. After all, the Alaska article states something to the effect that it is both the easternmost and westernmost state in the union...we can't have an inconsistency in Wikipedia! 141.149.47.43 01:21, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I agree with this. 179.59.59 E is in Alaska. 179.59.59 W is in Alaska. Other arguments depend on personal feeling rather than "What is most easterly, and what is most westerly?"Jeff 18:22, 27 June 2007 (UTC)JFrawley032759Jeff 18:22, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

No, the concepts of westernmost and easternmost are independent of the choice of a Prime Meridian. The westernmost point is the point which can be reached from the rest of the United States in a shorter distance by traveling in a westerly direction than it can be reached by traveling in an easterly direction. Gene Nygaard 12:40, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
According to the world almanac 2005 the most eastern point in the Superlative U.S. (the 50 states) is Pochoni Point, Semisopochnoi Island, AK --68.37.60.151 03:04, 22 August 2005 (UTC)


Shouldn't the southernmost point in the U.S. be Rose Atoll, rather than Steps Point, American Samoa? Rose Atoll, as far as I can tell, is part of American Samoa, is a U.S. wildlike refuge (even though it's all of about 10 acres), and is located about 10' SOUTH of Steps Point (14° 33' S as opposed to 14° 23')... 63.138.35.190 19:24, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

The maps I checked seem to indicate that you are correct. I have changed Steps Point to Rose Atoll.

Lowest major city is New Orleans at -15 ft. There is an indian village in Death Valley National Park with a couple hundred people that is the lowest town. I can't remember the name off hand, but I'll post it after I rack my brain a while. Dr U 01:40, 1 November 2005 (UTC) Dr U 21:04, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

How can the easternmost point in the 50 States be in one place (Alaska), while the easternmost point "on the North American continent" is in another State (Maine)? -- Alaska is on the North American continent, as evidenced by other records in the category.

Ahh, I get it now. Islands aren't considered to be part of the continent. d'oh.

Furnace Creek is not actually an incorporated city or even a census-designated place, my guess is that the lowest town in the u.s. would be somewhere around the Salton Sea.

Follow the link!!! It says that it Furnace Creek IS a census designated place in the 1st paragraph of that article!

Contents

[edit] Definition of contiguous United States

As I understand what is meant by "contiguous United States", points that require crossing water or passing through another country should not be included. This would mean that all four of the cardinal extremes of the contiguous US section are wrong: three are islands, and the Northwest Angle can only be reached by crossing the Lake of the Woods or through Canada. Kafinvan 22:27, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eastern border in Alaska

It's ridiculous and pedantic to place the eastern border in Alaska. At least there should be a note explaining why, and the real eastern border right next to it. —Cantus…☎ 15:00, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Totally agree. A map depicting the entire expanse/extent and relative location(s) of the territory that makes up the United States is highly unlikely to place bits of Alaska over at the right-hand end merely for the purpose of drawing attention to longitude degrees. See also Geography of Kiribati. //Big Adamsky 15:54, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree as well. If you travel east from Semisopochnoi Island, you are still in the US. The easternmost point and municipality should be in Maine. --Lasunncty 23:47, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree, and so does the picture. Is 4 of 4 considered a consensus? 1.618033989 23:10, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I would not concur. I have always regarded the easternmost point as being in the Aleutians. I think an objective observer would see it as such. Consider this: What if there was a country that went all the way around the world, all 360 degrees of longitude? What then would be the "easternmost" point? I think that there would be little dispute that it would be the piece of land laying at 179.99 degrees east longitude. I'm willing to consider arguments, but given the nature of east and west, I'm leaning towards Alaska as having all the extreme points of the US other than southern. Of course, Maine is the easternmost point when considering the contiguous states. Unschool 05:47, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I realize there is a dispute as to how one determines the easternmost and westernmost points. I reverted back to a version that gives consideration to all three methods discussed. Perhaps this page needs to be reorganized so as to better reflect a NPOV. --Lasunncty 06:30, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

This article really needs tightening up on this issue. It makes references to "common sense" and "if one defines..." without making any effort to say why this is reasonable. The easternmost point of the United States is simply in Alaska. If one wants to include the place on the east coast, then it needs to be in terms something like "the last point of the United States one could reach when travelling east from the centre of and continuously within the United States". That is a fairly pointless geographical location to include, but if it is wanted then it still cannot claim to be "easternmost". This is all tied in with the fact that people tend to conflate the International Date Line with the 180-degree meridian, as exemplified by the attempt to use the date in one version of easternmostness in this article. If one wants to mention the point which the the sun reaches first on each date, fine - but let's not pretend that that is the easternmost point. Salopian (talk) 13:02, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Machias seal island - not east of West Quoddy Head

A footnote currently reads:

3 The ownership of Machias Seal Island is disputed between the U.S. and Canada. If one considers this to be U.S. Territory, then it is the easternmost point in the 48 contiguous states, coordinates: 44°30′10″N, 67°06′10″W

But per multiple sources such as http://www.westquoddy.com/wq_faq.htm , http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/lighthouses/object.cfm?id=217 , and Wikipedia itself at Lubec, Maine, the longitude of West Quoddy Head, ME, is 44° 49' N 66° 57' W, placing it well east of Machias Seal Island. So it wouldn't matter who owns Machias Seal Island, since West Quoddy Head is east of it anyway.

Is the location of Machias Seal Island wrong? Or did someone just misread its longitude?Derek Balsam 15:19, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Multiple sources indicate that this footnote is incorrect; Machias Seal Island and it associated islet North Rock both lie to the west of West Quoddy Head. I will correct this.Derek Balsam 21:36, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alma vs Winter Park, Colorado

Alma CO is 1t 10,000 + feet - making it far higher than Winter Park. It is the highest point in the contenental US.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 198.133.100.133 (talk • contribs) 18:01, 22 August 2006.

The Alma, Colorado and Winter Park, Colorado articles both make the claim that they are highest. Per the Winter Park article, it recently annexed a ski resort making it higher. It's not clear which is correct. But right now both articles claim each is the highest....Derek Balsam 23:55, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Just recently Winter Park, Co became the highest after the ski area aprox(12,000ft) was annexed in to the town. -Darkshark0159

This discussion can be found in a similar form at Talk: Alma, Colorado and Talk:Winter Park, Colorado Darkshark0159 17:14, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

And also at Talk:Leadville, Colorado where they (we?) still claim to be the highest incorporated city in the US, even going as far as to threaten to annex Mount Elbert --Mdwyer 03:27, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Leadville still is the highest city. Places such as Wp and Alma are part of the highest town debate. All three are incorporated.