In 1829 the British and Americans, having no luck with bilateral negotiations, turned to arbitration. The King of the Netherlands, William 1st was agreeable to both sides and he in turn was willing to offer his services. His report was released on January 10th, 1831. The British, somewhat reluctantly accepted the arbitration, the Americans viewed it as disastrous and the Senate, in June of 1832 rejected it. If accepted it would have entrenched the true 45th as the new boundary.
After a near brush with war (see Stop 4 Poster 1) tensions were cooled by the Treaty of Washington in 1842 (also known as Webster-Ashburton Treaty). The Maine border with New Brunswick and Quebec was defined (but certainly not yet surveyed) and it was decided to let the old Collins-Vallentine Line stand as the international border for that part of the boundary. In July of 1843 the hard work began with significant wilderness surveying to be accomplished in the east. When only one commission was tasked with surveying the line, the other commission would subsequently do a check on the readings. Sometimes the two commissions worked side-by-side. Some 200 men were employed (mostly axmen to clear the 30 foot wide vista along the boundary).
The West Line (i.e. the old Collins Vallentine Line) posed some special challenges. Firstly the old line had to be found, and after 73 years Mother Nature had not sat idly by. Old blazes on elderly trees were found, as were piles of stones. Gradually the old line was reconstituted. Straight line segments were maximized so in fact the West Line does not quite duplicate the old line (i.e. there are fewer deflections). A “vista” was cleared and cast iron monuments (border markers) were placed at inflection points where the Collins Vallentine deflected from a straight bearing. Cast in Boston some 256 were made for the West Line alone. The cast iron markers (painted an anti-rust silver) are still there today.
The inset at the upper left show Lt.-Col. Bucknell Estcourt, in charge of the British Commission. He was 'a man of remarkably kind and courteous disposition' and had a long career in the military and even served as an MP in Britain. His long career ended in some disgrace. As a Major General he had been held responsible for the poorly supplied British Army during the first winter of the Crimean War. He died of cholera in the Crimea in 1856.
