Is Colorado a square? Not even close

DENVER (KDVR) — There are many interesting things to note about Colorado, from its unforgettable landscapes to the residents that call it home.

However, its shape is not usually one of those “interesting” things, given that, at first glance, it looks like a square, or at the very least, a rectangle.

Colorado was almost given this state’s name

The closer you look, however, the more you realize that the Centennial State is not a square or a rectangle, and is not even a four-sided shape at all.

Is Colorado a square? Not quite

In 1861, the boundaries of the Colorado Territory, which eventually became the 38th state, were designated using latitude and longitude.

Specifically, the southern and northern boundaries were designated as 37 degrees and 41 degrees north of the equator, respectively, and the east and west boundaries were set as 25 and 32 degrees west of Washington, D.C.

These boundaries, as they were set, would have created a rectangular-shaped territory.

This 177-mile trail circles the entire Denver metro

However, before the boundaries could be set in stone, a survey had to be conducted.

That is where the problems came in.

According to the Denver Public Library, congress authorized official surveys in the 1860s and 1870s to establish exactly where the borders were. Because this was done in a time before GPS or other similar tools, these surveys were done by actual people.

These people were prone to making mistakes, which led to a few sides being added in the process.

This Colorado city was planned as a utopia

In the end, Colorado found itself with a little more than the four sides it had planned to possess. In fact, it ended up with 697 sides in total.

These errors exist on all four of Colorado’s boundaries with other states. This means that, by default, its neighbor to the north, Wyoming, is also not as square as it first appears.

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