In the spring of 1899, a somewhat zealous and efficient State Engineer and Surveyor of New York, a Mr. Edward A. Bond, in reviewing the statutes governing his position, realized that there were State regulations requiring him “to make an examination of the state boundary monuments once every three years”, a task apparently unheeded by his predecessors. Naively, Mr. Bond asked for a Canadian surveyor to accompany him as he examined the border monuments. This innocent question kicked off a flurry of correspondence and telegrams between Ottawa, the British Embassy in Washington and Whitehall. This was an international matter and Canadians did not control their own foreign policy until the passage of the Act of Westminster in 1931. Eventually the response from the Canadians was to refuse the New York request on the grounds that merely to view the monuments and not repair them was a waste of time. By 1902 the Canadians were demanding a review of the boundary along its entire length. Eventually this morphed into the International Boundary Commission. Much work was done to extricate and repair monuments and defoliate vistas and generally set things to right in the period 1902 to 1923. The Commission keeps the now 20 foot vista cut to the ground (about every 6 years, each country takes its turn) and maintains the monuments.
