There’s only one place in the U.S. where four states meet.
Source: Original photo by Katie Drazdauskaite/ Unsplash
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There’s only one place in the U.S. where four states meet.

Want to try being in four places at once? Then get thee to the aptly named Four Corners Monument, which marks the intersection of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. It’s the only place in America where so many states converge, which is especially impressive given that there are 65 spots where three states meet. The exact location of the quadripoint (the technical term for a place where four territories touch) was a matter of more debate than you might expect, with some surveyors arguing that it should have been about 2,000 feet to the west, thanks to changes in the technical reference systems used for various surveys. It wasn't until a 1925 Supreme Court case that the matter was officially settled. 

The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American tribe.
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Incorrect.
It's a Fact
The Navajo Nation has long retained the most land of any Native American tribe, but it wasn’t until 2021 that it officially became the most populous tribe as well. With an enrollment of just under 400,000 citizens, it surpassed the Cherokee Nation’s 392,000 members.

Ending the dispute was an especially lengthy process when you consider that the borders were first surveyed in the aftermath of the Civil War. What’s more, it isn’t just state boundaries that are marked by the Four Corners Monument: The lands of the Navajo Nation, which maintains the site, meet those of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe there. The monument itself is fairly modest, with each state’s seal embedded in a cement pad around a circular granite disk that reads, “Here meet in freedom under God four states.” Sprawl just so on that disk, and you can have a different limb in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico each. 

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Numbers Don’t Lie
Elevation (in feet) of the Four Corners
4,870
Federally recognized Native American tribes
574
Annual visitors to the Four Corners Monument
250,000
Members of the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians (one of the smallest federally recognized tribal nations)
12
The most populous Four Corners state is _______.
The most populous Four Corners state is Arizona.
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Think Twice
There’s only one four-nation quadripoint in the world.

Situated in Southern Africa, it marks the intersection of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. As with the Four Corners in the U.S., there have been disagreements over the precise boundaries and whether they constitute a true quadripoint; because the intersection involves sovereign nations rather than neighboring states, the stakes of those debates have occasionally led to diplomatic spats. Unlike its American counterpart, however, there’s no monument to mark this quadripoint — mainly because it's in the middle of a river — but it’s a gorgeous sight nevertheless.

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