Cite as: 523 U. S. 767 (1998)
Stevens, J., dissenting
part of Ellis Island was in the State of New Jersey. What evidence is available uniformly supports the proposition that whenever a question of state authority was considered by any members of that multitude of immigrants and citizens, both they and the responsible authorities in New York assumed that all of Ellis Island was a part of New York. The relevant facts were sufficiently public and obvious to support a presumption that, with one temporary exception, the authorities in New Jersey shared that belief. The fact that all of the relevant evidence concerning that period points in the same direction is far more significant than the fact that the quantity of evidence supporting certain propositions is not large. A solitary fingerprint may establish a preponderance of the evidence when there is a total absence of evidence pointing in another direction.
I
As a preface to its factfinding, the Court provides us with two reasons for discounting the probative force of much of New York's evidence: the fact that New Jersey concedes that the original Island is in New York and the fact that the Island was occupied by the United States during the relevant period. Ante, at 790-794. Neither of those facts undermines the force of the uncontradicted evidence. I believe that a more appropriate preface to our factfinding function is a comment on the probable expectations of the three sovereigns who participated in the decision to enlarge the Island for use as an immigration station.
In 1890, when that decision was made, the 1834 Compact establishing the boundary between the two States had not yet been construed. Article Second of the Compact made it clear that Ellis Island was in New York, but Article Third identified separate interests in the area surrounding the Island. New Jersey was accorded "the exclusive right of property in and to the land under water" but New York was
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