Fremont County has gained about fourteen feet in a boundary adjustment at the Fremont-Custer County line at Hillside. The Fremont County Commissioners approved the work of former Custer County Surveyor Kit Shy and Fremont County Surveyor John Effinger III to reach a final determination of the county line that has been in question since 1873.
The county line at Hillside has always been described by meets and bounds but a formal survey had never been established. Shy initiated the latest effort in 1996 which was followed by a series of meetings and a couple of hikes to the top of Nipple Mountain in the Sangre De Cristo range in a search for monuments. Control points were set in 1999 by the surveyors and in October 2004, line markers were set at Hillside to determine the true county line boundary.
Development of the formal plats followed which included the history of the project by Shy. In the meantime Shy was elected as a Custer County Commissioner taking office in January 2005. He wanted to have the survey work completed before beginning duties as a commissioner. With the work Shy completed as the Custer County Surveyor, he will now be one of the three Custer County officials signing the new plat as a commissioner.
Effinger says the survey moved the monument markers giving Fremont County about fourteen more feet. He added that the former Hillside Store, which had the county line running down the center of the store, was most likely historically accurate.
The surveyors presented the Commissioners of both Fremont and Custer Counties with an aluminum pipe bearing the same monument cap used on the pins to mark the boundary.
