Blue Star Chronicles

As long as I can remember I have heard about how there has always been a dispute about the border between Georgia and Tennessee. To my knowledge this was always an academic discussion. I remember learning about it in school - Georgia history probably. I can’t say I remember much else about it except I was taught in school that there was such a dispute and that Tennessee somehow ended up with land that belonged to Georgia. Apparently, the mistake in surveying the state boundaries happened in 1881. That would make sense as that was when carpetbaggers were doing that sort of thing down here. As I recall it, and my recollection could very well be flawed cause I wasn’t the most studious person in school, Georgia felt that Chattanooga was supposed to be in Georgia rather than in Tennessee. Tennessee wasn’t having any of that and so the whole thing just remained an academic … whatever.

Imagine my surprise when I read tonight that Georgia is proposing to take back that part of Tennessee that I’ve always heard Georgia felt rightfully belonged in Georgia. Chattanooga, Georgia? How would that go over? It doesn’t sound right, but I suppose we could get used to it. Imagine my surprise when I read that some Georgia legislators are proposing we take back that part of Tennessee because we need the water. It was surprising since we’ve had a good bit of rain over the last few weeks. I realize its not been enough rain to make up for the drought of the summer, but still ….

I don’t think this will turn into a Gaza vs Israel kind of battle or another war between the states. But who knows, you know how us Southerners are.

A couple of state lawmakers want to annex a piece of Tennessee to get more water for Georgia.

State Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) and state Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell) on Wednesday introduced companion resolutions to stake a claim on a one-mile stretch of disputed land that they say rightfully belongs to Georgia.

If Georgia were to take that land, the state’s new border would stretch beyond the south bank of the Tennessee River, one of the largest tributaries in the Southeast.

Georgia was shortchanged of the land because of a “flawed survey conducted in 1818 and never accepted by the state of Georgia,” Shafer said.

“A misplaced survey marker is just that and nothing more,” he said. “A state boundary can only be changed by the legislatures of the states, with the consent of Congress. It cannot be changed by a mathematician with a faulty compass or a skittish surveying party afraid of the Indians.”

Nobody need be alarmed that such resolutions might be a prelude to a second, much smaller, War Between the States.

They merely call for the creation of two panels to investigate Georgia’s possible legal claims to land on the other side of the Tennessee and North Carolina borders.

source