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At the end of the Mexican-American war, a boundary was drawn from the Pacific Ocean
to the Gulf of Mexico. A 1,000 mile section of this boundary was defined as the deepest
channel of the Rio Grande. Spring floods often caused the Rio Grande to shift its course
and the treaty negotiators tried to make provisions for these changes. If the change happened
slowly through the erosion of the riverbed, then the deepest channel of the river would
continue to be the international boundary. The border would move with the river. If the
changes happened quickly from the floods cutting new channels, then the old channel would continue
to be the border, even if now dry and distant from the river. As the river meandered and
snaked over flood plains it created hundreds of these bancos, sometimes even double bancos,
double S-shaped curves. Changes were sometimes difficult to quantify in terms of the treaty.
Within a few years, the river had strayed far from its original boundaries leaving tracts
of land on both sides in dispute.