United States
In the United States, the parallel defines the southern borders of Utah, Colorado, and Kansas, and the northern borders of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. It dates to the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 when Congress divided Indian Territory into Kansas and Nebraska north of the 37th parallel and a remainder Indian Territory to the south. Before that the line had served as the boundary between the Cherokee and Osage reservations in Indian Territory. Congress extended the line west to New Mexico Territory, thus creating what later became the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Landmarks on the 37th parallel include Santa Cruz, California; Gilroy, California; Madera, California; Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley; Colorado City, Arizona; the Four Corners at the intersection with the 32nd meridian west from Washington (the only place where four U.S. states meet at a point); Cairo, Illinois; Bowling Green, Kentucky; and Newport News, Virginia.
The parallel 37° north formed the southern boundary of the historic and extralegal Territory of Jefferson.
Read more about this topic: 37th Parallel North
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