Grayson County TXGenWeb

Texas ~ Oklahoma
Boundary

District Daily News
Miami, Oklahoma
April 11, 1921

OKLAHOMA WINS BIG BATTLE OVER TEXAS BOUNDARY
Southern Bank of Red River is Held to be Legal Border of Two States

By Associated Press
Washington, April 11 - The boundary between Oklahoma and Texas follows the south bank of the Red River, the Supreme Court held today in deciding the dispute between Secretary of State Adams and the Spanish Envoy at the time when Texas was a part of Mexico. By "every consideration" the court added, the definition of boundary was just and legal.

Oil Wells Involved
The court announced today that a formal decree would be issued within the next few days, carrying out its judgment. The Red River case grew out of a suit brought by the State of Oklahoma, which claimed the title to valuable oil deposits lying in the shallow waters of the river. Had the center of the river been held to be the state line as Texas held, the oil wells in operation would have been thrown into Texas.
Oklahoma's counsel produced in court lengthy excerpts from the negotiations between the United States and Spain in 1819 to show that this very point was brought up at that time. Secretary Adams, according to his memoirs set for the boundary between Spain and the United States the "south bank" of Red River, must be accepted as the limit of the jurisdiction of the United States.

Tulsa World
September 23, 1921

RED RIVER CASE BEFORE SUPREME COURT IN 1922
Oklahoma City, September 22 - The Red river hearing which is being conducted here by representatives of the United States government in settling the disque [sic} between Texas and Oklahoma as the exact boundary line separating the 2 states, has been set for hearing before the supreme court January 9, according to Frederick S. Tyler, U.S. commissioner before whom the hearing is being heard. Mr. Tyler said that the cost of conducting the hearing aggregates $1,500 a day and that the case was the most important one on the docket of the supreme court.