Surveyor Says Georgia Shouldn’t Expect Relief from the Tennessee River

As you are probably aware, Georgia has been suffering from a 100-year drought for around a year now. Recently the thirsty state looked north and realized that the Tennessee River, which mostly meanders through the state of Tennessee, might technically dip below Georgia’s northern border giving the State access to its water.

While Georgians have been dreaming of a water treatment plant and even a pipeline, Tennesseans have been defending their river from use by their southern neighbor. As the dispute makes its way through the courts Bart Crattie, a Georgian surveyor, thinks that his state is wasting its time.

Although the border is supposed to be along the 35th parallel which would give Georgia its precious river-front property, it has also been agreed to be marked by the Camak stone which stands as the marker for the corner of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. Even though Georgia and Tennessee have never formally agreed to the stone’s legitimacy Georgia and Alabama did in 1826. Crattie says that the surveyors’ principal of “the monument holds” says that even if a mutually agreed marker such as the Camak stone is later found to have been laid in error, that monument remains the legitimate maker. The courts generally defer to this principal.