These tidbits from Beulah Hershiser’s The Adjustment of the Boundaries of Nevada show how people used ambiguities about jurisdictional boundaries to avoid paying taxes:
The California boundary of was in reality so little known that an accurate official survey of the eastern boundary of the State was urged upon the California Legislature by the Surveyors-General in each report . One reason given for the fixing of the line between California and the United States Territories was that California lost taxes because people residing near the disputed line claimed to live in Utah.
A footnote adds: “The officers of Carson County even appropriated money to aid citizens in their resistance to the collection of taxes by the authorities of Plumes County, Calif.”
The Surveyor-General of Nevada in his report of , told of citizens in Lincoln County who refused to pay taxes, declaring they resided in Utah.
