The North Carolina–Tennessee–Virginia Corners is a tripoint where the states of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia meet. Located in the Iron Mountains, the landmark is roughly equidistant between Snake Mountain to the south, and Mount Rogers, (the highest mountain in Virginia), to the northeast.
The nearest town is Whitetop, Virginia which is about four miles to the northeast of the corner. The marker can be accessed via a hiking trail.
The location of the tripoint is unique as it was the result of inadequate survey equipment used during the 18th century.[clarification needed] The debates over the location of the tripoint and the boundaries between Virginia and Tennessee drew tension and led to the Supreme Court decision of Virginia v. Tennessee, which led to the modern borders and established the 1802 tripoint in 1893.
The first attempt at establishing a tripoint began in 1665 when the borders of the Colony of Virginia and the Province of Carolina in 1665.[clarification needed] That year, Charles II of England modified the charter of Carolina to grant the colony control over the entire Albemarle Sound, which caused the boundary to follow the 36th parallel north, which was 34 miles to the north of the original boundary. In practice, the idea was that the boundary would follow through when the state of Tennessee was established. It wasn't until 1710 when surveyors began defining the boundary so that land could be purchased and sold for tax revenues. The attempted survey ended with a land disputed as Edward Moseley of Carolina accused the Virginian surveyors of using inaccurate surveying equipment, while the surveyors believed that Mosely had a conflict of interest in the speculated lands along the border.
A second attempt to survey the land came in 1728, which was jointly surveyed by both Virginia and North Carolina. The new line, documented by William Byrd II shows the line starting at the Atlantic Ocean, and traversing inland to the Dan River (known as the Fitzwilliam River in the Province of North Carolina). The 1728 line terminated its surveying line near present-day Danville, Virginia.
The surveying team from Virginia believed that colonial settlement would continue to expand westward, causing the team to survey the line all the way to Peters Creek, Virginia, about 40 miles to the west. The North Carolinian team terminated their survey sooner, believing that additional surveying would cause a rush for westward expansion.
Twenty-one years later, in 1749, a Virginian team consisting of Peter Jefferson and Joshua Fry surveyed an additional 90 miles west of the Peters Creek point. The survey was claimed to be vastly inaccurate, and this claim was proven to be true, as Jefferson and Fry drifted nearly five miles north of the parallel due to failing to account for variation that would be caused by the magnetic north. This survey then was known as the Fry-Jefferson line of 1751. Jefferson was subsequently remembered for surveying the Great Wagon Road, which became a precedent for travel in the Shenandoah Valley from Pennsylvania to Virginia. This later would become the site of Interstate 81 in Virginia.
The revised ending point of the Fry Jefferson Line became the sight of Steep Rock Creek, where the modern tripoint of the three states is located. Steep Rock is often mistaken for modern Laurel Creek. Mitchel's map of 1771 and Fry-Jefferson map clearly show present Laurel Creek as Tooley's river. The survey line crosses Fodderstack Mountain then Iron Mountain to terminate just north of Backbone Rock, surely the "steep" rock. Backbone Rock presently lies in the state line offset[clarification needed]. The reason for this line for being different from the modern Tennessee–Virginia line was that the line was of compromise of the Virginia v. Tennessee court case, as different state-sponsored surveyors using different equipment to stake land claims for their states.
Coordinates: 36°35′17″N 81°40′39″W / 36.588141°N 81.6774091°W / 36.588141; -81.6774091
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