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Wrong border section

The border between Mississippi and Alabama upon statehood in 1817 is wrong. It was changed by Congress by a survey mandated in 1819 to the way it is shown in the current version of this file. The survey moved the endpoint on the Gulf of Mexico to a point "three miles, 57 chains & 46 links East" (3.7825 miles) of the endpoint that was due south of the former northwest corner of Washington County.

See: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ALABAMA © 2016. Alabama Humanities Foundation

Historic Origins of Alabama's Boundaries, by David M. Robb, Huntsville, Alabama

"When Congress created the new state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory in 1817, the northwest corner of Washington County was used as the primary reference point for setting Mississippi's eastern boundary. From this point, a line went north to the mouth of Bear Creek on the Tennessee River. South from the point, the bottom leg initially ran due south to the Gulf of Mexico and very close to the east side of Pascagoula Bay. Settlers in this area, however, protested that this vertical boundary placed them in the Alabama Territory, separating them from families and businesses on the west side of Pascagoula Bay. In 1819, when Alabama was admitted to the Union, Congress reunited all the Pascagoula settlers in Mississippi by relocating the bottom leg "to run southeastward from the northwest point of Washington County, to strike the Gulf at a point ten miles east of the mouth of the Pascagoula River."