As the Tiarks-Hassler survey team came into the more settled lands of easternmost New York they must have become aware of how far removed to the south they were from the Collins-Vallentine Line. Arriving at Rouse’s Point (Lake Champlain) I am sure they checked and double-checked their readings. The numbers did not change. They were a good 3,777 feet south of the Collins-Vallentine Line.
What made these findings catastrophic was the fact that the Americans had almost completed a fort at Long Point, a strategic location that would control navigation up the Lake or down the Richelieu. The fort was clearly north of the true 45th and was firmly in British territory. The American commander in charge of constructing the fort, Lt.-Col. Joseph Totten, came to see what these surveyors were doing near his fort and Tiarks and Hassler, not willing at the moment to disclose their findings, bluffed their way out of the encounter. They did not even let the rest of the survey team know.
The fort under construction had not been named, but it soon came to be known as “Fort Blunder”. It had already cost the Americans millions in today’s dollars. When Tiarks and Hassler did disclose their findings to their superiors apparently the British smugly told their American counterparts to “…please keep the fort in good order for its new proprietors”. The Americans sent out other astronomers to recheck Hassler’s observations but they all came back with the same grim news.
The true 45th parallel was going to be a problem.
