Tri-state area
There are a number of areas in the 48 contiguous United States known informally as tri-state areas. A tri-state area is an area associated with a particular town or metropolis that lies across three states. Some, but not all, of these involve a state boundary tripoint.
The most frequently referenced tri-state area is that associated with the New York metropolitan area, which covers parts of the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It is often referenced in New York radio, as well as through countless television commercials.
Three other prominent areas that have been labeled tri-state areas are the Cincinnati tri-state area, including Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana; the Pittsburgh tri-state area, covering parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia; and the Chicago tri-state area, also known as Chicagoland, which includes Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Smaller tri-state areas include those of Dubuque, Iowa, which spills over into Illinois and Wisconsin; of Quincy, Illinois, which includes parts of Missouri and Iowa; Evansville, Indiana, which includes parts of Illinois and Kentucky; the Chattanooga, Tennessee tri-state area which includes Alabama and Georgia; and the Huntington (W.V.)-Ashland (Ky.)-Ironton (Oh.) Tri-State region, which incorporates areas of Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The Quincy, Evansville, and Huntington-Ashland areas are noteworthy for the states included all being separated by rivers.
The area that includes Washington, D.C. and the nearby parts of Maryland and the Virginias is sometimes loosely referred to as a "tri-state area," although the District of Columbia is not a state; however, with the presence of Jefferson County, West Virginia in the official Washington–Arlington–Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area, the region, as defined by the US Government, does in fact include three states. This area is more commonly/colloquially referred to as the "DMV" (DC, Maryland, Virginia).
The "Joplin District", a lead and zinc mining region of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, produced mineral specimens known as "Tri-State" minerals, typically consisting mainly of sphalerite.
The Delaware Valley region, which includes eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware is also known as the tri-state area. The phrase is often used in radio and TV advertising in the Philadelphia market.
Land tripoints
Of the 62 points in the United States where three and only three states meet (each of which may be associated with its own tri-state area), 35 are on dry land.[1] They are:
State 1 | State 2 | State 3 | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Alabama | Florida | Georgia | Marker on riverbank is actually a few feet above and west of true tripoint at high-water line. |
Alabama | Georgia | Tennessee | Recently stolen marker on dry land at surface level and unmarked on lake in cavern directly below. |
Arizona | Nevada | Utah | Marked with a red sandstone monument.[2] |
Arkansas | Louisiana | Mississippi | Unmarked on silt island in river connected to west bank by riprap. |
Arkansas | Louisiana | Texas | See Ark-La-Tex. Marker in process of being surrounded and absorbed by tree. |
Arkansas | Missouri | Oklahoma | Marked with a stone monument.[3] |
Arkansas | Oklahoma | Texas | Unmarked on seasonal silt island or in river bed, but Oklahoma-Texas state line as revised in 2000 is defective in not extending from vegetation line on south bank to pre-established tripoint. |
California | Nevada | Oregon | Marked with a cairn.[4] |
Colorado | Kansas | Nebraska | Marked with a brass disc.[5] |
Colorado | Kansas | Oklahoma | 8 Mile Corner. Marker is concealed in crypt beneath removable manhole cover. |
Colorado | Nebraska | Wyoming | Marked with a stone surrounded by a three-stone colored base.[6] |
Colorado | New Mexico | Oklahoma | Preston Monument |
Colorado | Utah | Wyoming | Marked.[7] |
Connecticut | Massachusetts | New York | See Brace Mountain or Mount Frissell. Marked with a stone inscribed with MASS-1898-NY and sometimes a "scratched-on" CONN.[8] |
Connecticut | Massachusetts | Rhode Island | See Thompson, Connecticut. Marked with a stone inscribed with MASS-CONN-RI.[9] |
Delaware | Maryland | Pennsylvania | See Delaware Wedge. Marked with a stone inscribed with M-M-P-P as this was not intended to be the original tri-point.[10] |
Georgia | North Carolina | Tennessee | Marked.[11] |
Idaho | Montana | Wyoming | Located within Yellowstone National Park. Marked, although difficult to access.[12] |
Idaho | Nevada | Oregon | Marked with a three-sided stone inscribed with N-I-O on the respective faces.[13] |
Idaho | Nevada | Utah | Marked with a granite monument inscribed with the respective states' names.[14] |
Idaho | Utah | Wyoming | Marked with a stone.[15] |
Indiana | Michigan | Ohio | Marker is located in a monument box beneath the surface of a rural road. Was set in 1999[16]and used to have a removable metal plate protecting it.[17] |
Iowa | Minnesota | South Dakota | True point is marked with a disc in the center of a T-shaped road intersection.[18] A witness monument nearby in the South Dakota corner acknowledges the tri-point being set in 1859. |
Kansas | Missouri | Oklahoma | Marked with a plaque on a seldom used dead-end road. Apparently a teenagers' backwoods drinking spot.[19] |
Kentucky | Tennessee | Virginia | Tri-State Peak[20] Located within Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Marked. |
Kentucky | Virginia | West Virginia | Marked with a USGS marker on top of a two-foot high iron pipe at the river's high point.[21] |
Maryland | Pennsylvania | West Virginia | Marked with a pyramid-like stone.[22] |
Massachusetts | New Hampshire | Vermont | Marker is technically on dry land, but buried within river bed due to a dam's construction downstream.[23] |
Massachusetts | New York | Vermont | Marked with a stone.[24] |
Montana | North Dakota | South Dakota | Marked with a red granite stone.[25] |
Montana | South Dakota | Wyoming | Marked with a stone within a fence.[26] |
Nebraska | South Dakota | Wyoming | Marked with a stone within a fence.[27] |
New Jersey | New York | Pennsylvania | Marked by the Tri-State Monument in Port Jervis, New York by the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink Rivers.[28] |
New Mexico | Oklahoma | Texas | Texomex Marker |
North Carolina | Tennessee | Virginia | Marked.[29] |
Water tripoints
Twenty-seven tripoints are under water:
State 1 | State 2 | State 3 | Water | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | Mississippi | Tennessee | Tennessee River | |
Arizona | California | Nevada | Colorado River | |
Arkansas | Mississippi | Tennessee | Mississippi River | Memphis, Tennessee metro area. |
Arkansas | Missouri | Tennessee | Mississippi River | |
Connecticut | New York | Rhode Island | Long Island Sound | The part of New York that is in this tri-state area is Fishers Island. It is the New London, Connecticut metro area. |
Delaware | New Jersey | Pennsylvania | Delaware River | Philadelphia metro area, at the east end of the Twelve-Mile Circle. |
Georgia | North Carolina | South Carolina | Chatooga River | Located in river very near marker on dry land. |
Idaho | Oregon | Washington | Snake River | |
Illinois | Indiana | Kentucky | Wabash River and Ohio River | Evansville, Indiana metro area. See Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky Tri-State Area. |
Illinois | Indiana | Michigan | Lake Michigan | Known as either the Indiana Dunes or the Michigan Dunes Area |
Illinois | Iowa | Wisconsin | Mississippi River | Dubuque, Iowa metro area. |
Illinois | Kentucky | Missouri | Mississippi River and Ohio River | Little Egypt region popularly labeled as a tri-state area with St. Louis, Missouri, Carbondale, Illinois metro area, and Paducah, Kentucky being its nuclei. |
Illinois | Michigan | Wisconsin | Lake Michigan | |
Indiana | Kentucky | Ohio | Ohio River | Cincinnati, Ohio metro area. The tripoint is near, but not precisely at, the confluence with the Great Miami River. |
Iowa | Illinois | Missouri | Mississippi River and Des Moines River | Border with Lee County, Iowa |
Iowa | Minnesota | Wisconsin | Mississippi River | La Crosse, Wisconsin metro area. Was apparently marked at one time with a sign that had been anchored in the location, but that sign has since been moved as of 2001.[30] |
Iowa | Missouri | Nebraska | Missouri River | |
Iowa | Nebraska | South Dakota | Big Sioux River and Missouri River | Sioux City, Iowa metro area. |
Kansas | Missouri | Nebraska | Missouri River | |
Kentucky | Missouri | Tennessee | Mississippi River | Three separate tripoints, due to meanders of the river (though probably only a single tri-state area surrounding them all). See also Kentucky Bend. |
Kentucky | Ohio | West Virginia | Big Sandy River and Ohio River | Huntington (W.V.)-Ashland (Ky.)-Ironton (Oh.) Tri-State region. |
Maryland | Virginia | West Virginia | Potomac River | Unmarked, at low water line, and almost always submerged. |
Michigan | Minnesota | Wisconsin | Lake Superior | |
Minnesota | North Dakota | South Dakota | Bois de Sioux River | Not directly marked and most probably within river. |
Ohio | Pennsylvania | West Virginia | Ohio River | Technically the Beginning Point of the U.S. Public Land Survey, although the actual monument is 1,112 feet north of the tripoint due to the tripoint's current location under water; Pittsburgh Tri-State. |
Regions with no Tripoint
The following tri-state areas are also notable, but have no tripoint:
See also
- Four Corners
- Four State Area
- Twin cities (geographical proximity), which includes tri-city
References
- ↑ "Tri State Corners in the United States". Jack Parsell.
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=12
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=6
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/canvor.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/coksne.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/conewy.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/coutwy.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=19
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=20
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=24
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/ganctn.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/idmtwy.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/idnvor.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/idnvut.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/idutwy.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/inmioh.pdf Jack Parsell's description of the tripoint
- ↑ http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC2018
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/photos/IAMNSDBrian.jpg Photo by Gregg A. Butler of the IA-MN-SD tripoint and its witness post
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=46
- ↑ Tri-State Peak at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/kyvawv.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/mdpawv.pdf
- ↑ Eric Jones. New Hampshire Curiosities. Globe Pequot, 2006. p114-5.
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=54
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/mtndsd.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/mtsdwy.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/nesdwy.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=63
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/docs/nctnva.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=31
External links