Place where four states meet marks anniversary

FOUR CORNERS NATIONAL MONUMENT, N.M. - It's the only place in the nation where the corners of four states touch, and on Wednesday, tourists, locals, stamp collectors and representatives of the U.S. Postal Service and two tribes marked its 125th anniversary.

As children posed for photos sitting astraddle four states in the center of the concrete slab that marks the site, adults lined up to have mail stamped with commemorative postmarks - the first time ever that four postmarks were done simultaneously.

The crowd also bought up special Postal Service decorative envelopes depicting the monument and the seals of the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute tribe. Souvenir-hunters and stamp collectors stood in line to get their envelopes stamped with postmarks for Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

''People that come to this monument can take with them a sense of history, understanding for this area,'' said Manuel Heart of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, which owns and manages the site with the Navajo Nation.

Wednesday's ceremonies included blessings by members of both tribes. Tribal members also performed ceremonial dances for the crowd, and Postal Service officials re-enacted the marking of the Four Corners in 1875.

Martha Morrison, 66, a native of Farmington 60 miles to the southeast, recalls coming to the Four Corners as a child, when the concrete pad that marks the boundaries was much smaller than it is today.

''We always stood on that monument, even when it was just big enough to stand on,'' she said.

Four Corners National Monument, on U.S. 160 about 5 miles northeast of Teec Nos Pos, Ariz., gets more than 250,000 visitors a year, many from other countries. The original monument was built in 1912, the year New Mexico and Arizona became states.

Today's monument is a much larger slab of concrete with steps up to the spot where the corners of the four states touch. Each state's flag flies on its side, and each corner is marked with the appropriate state seal.

Stan Johnson of Bluff, Utah, a member of the planning team for the ceremony, said the first marker for the site 125 years ago was a stick in the dirt held up by large rocks.

Johnson bought several Four Corners commemorative envelopes, planning to keep some for himself and send others to family members as far away as Sweden.

Morrison spent $34.95 for 10 commemorative envelopes. She said the price was worth the memorabilia, which she plans never to mail.

The monument is a source of pride for all four states and the Southwest, Morrison said.

''This is part of our culture and it's part of our heritage,'' she said.

The Postal Service's Pat Mitchell of Cortez, Colo., said he sold thousands of commemorative envelopes Wednesday morning at the monument's visitors center.

Genevieve Smith of Port Charlotte, Fla., who was at the ceremony with her grown son and daughter, bought several. ''I've collected stamps before, but nothing like this,'' she said, looking over the elaborate envelope.

By noon, three hours after the ceremony began, the line to buy envelopes had dwindled, and the line at the monument had grown as people waited for a chance to pose for pictures in four states at once.

Members of the Ute Mountain Utes and the Navajo Nation line the site each day, selling jewelry and pottery. One of the potters, Elmay Dawes of Farmington, said the ceremony was special.

''It's spiritually touching and it's something for us to feel good about,'' she said.

Dawes bought five of the Postal Service's commemorative envelopes. She said she planned to give four of them away to her best customers, and keep the last for herself.