President Benjamin Harrison Establishes the International Boundary and Water Commission Between the United States and Mexico

The Commission is still in existence today

 

The Mexican War up-ended what had been the border between the United States and Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 fixed the international boundary between El Paso – Ciudad Juarez and the Gulf of Mexico. The Gadsden Purchase in 1853 extended the southern boundary of New Mexico and Arizona southwards to enable the United States to construct a railroad to the west coast along a southern route (plans for which were scuttled by the Civil War), and to resolve a question arising from the 1848 Treaty as to the location of the southern boundary of New Mexico. Temporary commissions were formed by these early boundary treaties to survey and demarcate the boundaries on the ground.

As settlements sprang up along the boundary rivers and the adjoining lands began to be developed for agriculture in the late 19th century, questions arose as to the location of the boundary when the rivers marking the boundary changed their course and transferred tracts of land from one side of the river to the other. In July 1882, a temporary commission was established to resurvey and place additional monuments along the western land boundary from El Paso to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua to San Diego, and in Baja California. Then in 1884 the two governments established the Border Convention, which adopted rules designed to deal with and amicably settle boundary questions.

But these measures were not sufficient. So in 1889, another Border Convention was held that resulted in the two governments creating the International Boundary Commission (IBC), to consist of a United States section and a Mexican section. The IBC was charged with the application of the rules of the 1884 Convention, and was designed to resolve differences or questions that might arise on the frontier of the U.S. and Mexico where the Rio Grande and Colorado River formed the boundary, and such questions arose from alterations or changes in the river bed or from construction work along the bed of the river. The IBC, with its name changed to International Boundary and Water Commission, is still very much in existence after 134 years.

Document signed, Washington, October 14, 1889, being the original order for the United States to establish the International Boundary and Water Commission. “I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to my proclamation of the Convention between the United States & Mexico, signed Feb. 18, 1889, to revive the provisions of the Convention of July 29, 1882, to survey and relocate the existing boundary line between the two countries west of the Rio Grande and to extend the time fixed in Art. VIII of the said Convention for the completion of the work in question, [my proclamation] dated this day and signed by me, and for so doing this shall be his warrant.”