CASES ADJUDGED

IN THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,

AT

OCTOBER TERM, 1892.

IOWA v. ILLINOIS.

ORIGINAL.

No. 5. Original. Submitted November 28, 1892. — Decided January 3, 1893.

The true line, in a navigable river between States of the Union which separates the jurisdiction of one from the other, is the middle of the main channel of the river.

In such case the jurisdiction of each State extends to the thread of the stream, that is, to the "mid-channel,” and, if there be several channels, to the middle of the principal one, or, rather, the one usually followed. The boundary line between the State of Iowa and the State of Illinois is the middle of the main navigable channel of the Mississippi River.

As the two States both desire that this boundary line be established at the places where the several bridges mentioned in the pleadings cross the Mississippi River, it is ordered that a commission be appointed to ascertain and designate at said places the boundary line between the two States, and that such commission be required to make the proper examination, and to delineate on maps prepared for that purpose, the true line as determined by this court, and report the same to the court for its further action.

THE case is stated in the opinion.

Mr. John Y. Stone, Attorney General of the State of Iowa, and Mr. James C. Davis for complainant.

VOL. CXLVII-1

1

Opinion of the Court.

Mr. George Hunt, Attorney General of the State of Illinois, for respondent.

MR. JUSTICE FIELD delivered the opinion of the court.

The Mississippi River flows between the States of Iowa and Illinois. It is a navigable stream and constitutes the boundary between the two States; and the controversy between them is as to the position of the line between its banks or shores which separates the jurisdiction of the two States for the purposes of taxation and other purposes of government.

The complainant, the State of Iowa, contends that, for taxation, and for all other purposes, the boundary line is the middle of the main body of the river, taking the middle line between its banks or shores without regard to the "steamboat channel," as it is termed, or deepest part of the stream, and that, to determine the banks or shores, the measurements must be taken when the water is in its natural or ordinary stage, neither swollen by floods nor shrunk by droughts.

On the other hand, the defendant, the State of Illinois, claims that, for taxation and all other purposes, its jurisdiction extends to the middle of "the steamboat channel" of the river, wherever that may be, whether on its east or west bank-the channel upon which commerce on the river by steamboats or other vessels is usually conducted, and which for that reason is sometimes designated as "the channel of commerce."

The State of Iowa in its bill alleges: That prior to and at the time of the treaty between England, France and Spain, in 1763, 3 Jenkinson's Treaties, 177, the territory now comprising the State of Iowa was under the dominion of France, and the territory now comprising the State of Illinois was under the dominion of Great Britain, and that, by the treaty named, the middle of the river Mississippi was made the boundary line between the British and French possessions in North America.

That by the treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the United States, which was concluded September 3, 1783, 3 Jenkinson's Treaties, 410, Art. II, and 8 Stat. 80, the territory comprising the State of Illinois passed to the United States;