Sense or Nonsense?

Albert L. Fisher, Geography Professor Emeritus at the University of Utah, penned some strong opinions about Utah's straight borders. In his 1980 article, written for the Journal of the Utah Academy of Arts and Sciences, Encyclia, Fisher made the argument that borders should define logical functional and service boundaries rather than be arbitrary political lines.

"It is said that geometric boundaries are used when there is ignorance of the land or people or both," Fisher wrote, not saying who he might be referring to as the quote originator, but you get the idea that it might well have been him. His article is not available online but it goes on to make some well-reasoned arguments in detail for redrawing the internal county boundaries for that state, also mostly "geometric." He ends with the revolutionary thought that those boundaries should not be fixed and rigid at all but "bend or be removed according to need." He sounds like a man worth a visit.

The full title of Fisher's article is "Boundaries and Utah: Sense or Nonsense?," and appears on pages 127-133 of the 1980 Encyclia. It is definitely worth a read if you have a research library within reach.