For many of us, there's great appeal in the idea of standing on four states at the same time — or of skipping from New Mexico to Colorado to Arizona and back in a few seconds. As for standing at our state's far-northwest corner and gazing southeast, imagining Farmington, Gallup, Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, even Hobbs and Carlsbad 'way at the end of it all, well, we still get a kick out of it.

We're not alone; folks for decades have been veering from the main tourist tracks for a chance to prance upon the only point in the United States common to four state corners. Usually a visit to the Four Corners monument is part of a trip to the region's other marvels — nearby Mesa Verde or more-distant Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Canyonlands national parks among them.

The boundary monument setting is comparatively dull, scrubland visitors will have seen in abundance on the way — but there's beauty in those miles of wide-open spaces, and at the marker-designated point, the pioneering spirit soars ...

Such rhapsodizing hit a sour note last year when an article in the Deseret News said the marker was intended to be at 109 degrees west longitude and 37 degrees north latitude, but really sits at 109 02 42.62019 west longitude and 36 59 56.31532 north latitude. That works out to 2-1/2 miles east of the official marker.

The implications were jarring: Did that mean there's a 21/2-by-650-mile strip between Mexico and Wyoming, heretofore thought to be in New Mexico and Colorado, that belatedly becomes part of Arizona and Utah? The land in question tends to be pretty barren — but certainly worth fighting for, in the minds of four states' legislatures, among others.

The potential for consternation, however, was short-lived: The feds, still contending that the 1875 survey was right on, said in the same breath that maybe it was 1,800 feet off — but off to the east; that should be fodder for New Mexico legislators to claim new territory, the way some claim El Paso. But the feds, and various court decisions, will prevail: The monument will remain where it is.

By way of confirming the location, construction started earlier this month on a new monument — featuring a bigger surrounding plaza with an "interpretive center." Presumably there'll still be a fee for viewing and treading from one state to another on the monument; it's administered by the Navajo Nation, which shares a boundary there with the Ute Mountain Reservation.

But the improvements should enhance the place's appeal — and news of the project calls to mind Stewart Udall's advocacy of new tourism efforts for the Four Corners region.

The former interior secretary and longtime Santa Fe resident realizes that the region could draw not just Westerners and summer-vacationing Americans from all over, but international visitors as well: Europeans and Asians have long found John Ford Country attractive. Udall figures it's time to develop environmentally sensitive lodging out there so folks don't have to rush in and out from Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Durango and Gallup; let 'em overnight beneath the region's gorgeous skies and wander through that wonderland at dawn ...

The new monument might be the lure that's needed to help make the New Frontiersman's vision a reality.