Thread: Odd pieces of Canadian and U.S.A. land

Don't ask me why but I find these things interesting...


Northwest Angle, Minnesota

Take an hours-long drive on a Manitoba gravel road north of the Minnesota border and you'll come across something curious: a piece of the U.S. located well inside Canada's mainland.

Minnesota's Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods touches no other American land. It's just a snippet of Canada that happens to be American. Why? It was apparently a mistake on a map in 1783 that was never corrected.

Read more: http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/WeirdNe.../22629113.html

Stanstead: A Town on the Border

The trail behind Gordie Douglas’s metalworking shop winds up the hill to an old tractor, and then it peters out. From there, we walk a narrow path up through the trees until we reach what looks like the clear-cut that marks the boundary between Canada and the United States. Gordie tells us it’s better not to cross the line. He says there are sensors in the ground and maybe cameras hidden in the trees. The last time a guy he knew walked across the line nearby, the U.S. Border Patrol chopper was overhead in two minutes, and some witless creep with a bullhorn was shouting down at the guy, telling him to report to the patrol post right friggin’ now or he’d be subject to stiff penalties under the law. What crap, says Gordie. The guy was going over to visit a friend. He’d been doing it for years; he’d walk across into the States, have a few beers and walk back. It was much easier than driving all the way around. Now, the Border Patrol “buddies” (a local term expressing contempt for someone) were all over it. The guy’s a dual citizen, for Chrissake, born in the U.S.A.

Stanstead Map
See how the border cuts through the town of Stanstead, Quebec.
I’m in Stanstead, Que., which, together with Derby Line, Vermont, forms one town divided by the Canada–U.S. boundary. As part of my research for a book on America’s boundaries with Mexico and Canada, I’m riding a Kawasaki KLR650 motorcycle through the borderlands that lie along the length of each boundary. My friend Steve Baker lives just outside Stanstead and is showing me around.

Read more: http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/mag...order-town.asp

Point Roberts, Washington

Wandering Google Maps can reveal magical geographies. When preparing for a recent first-time trip to Vancouver, I started zooming in and out and around the area to see what the surroundings are like. That was how I first learned of the existence of Point Roberts, Washington.

The town sits about 20 miles directly south of Vancouver, on a little peninsular tip of land, jutting just below the 49th parallel. That's the line, as you probably know, that generally demarcates the separation between Canada and the United States, at least from the middle of Minnesota westward. This borderline cuts between Blaine, Washington, and White Rock, British Columbia, the two counterpoint cities of this west coast end of the U.S.-Canada border. But through the waters of Boundary Bay, the line keeps heading west, true along the 49th and directly through the peninsula at this tip of British Columbia. To the south of the line sits Point Roberts, a 5-square mile fingernail of B.C. that is actually part of the United States.

read more: http://www.citylab.com/design/2012/0...shington/1265/

The American Town That's Secretly Canadian - Hyder, Alaska

In 1814, during the War of 1812, two thousand British soldiers under Major General Robert Ross occupied and burned much of Washington, D.C. Because the invasion was a response to American incursions into British Canada, Canadian schoolchildren—with the clarity of patriotism if not historical accuracy—still grow up learning about this event as “the time we burned down the White House.” But what if Canada really had taken over the U.S. government in 1814?, I sometimes wonder. What would an America under tyrannical Canadian rule look like? More polite? Cheaper health care? Would we all have to call macaroni and cheese “Kraft dinner”? The best way to envision this nightmarish alternate-universe dystopia is to peek in on the quiet town of Hyder, Alaska.

Hyder, population 87, is Alaska’s easternmost town, a tiny town surrounded by lofty, glacier-covered peaks at the corner of the Alaska Panhandle. The town boomed in the early 20th century when gold and silver were discovered nearby, but is now so small that residents bill it as “Alaska’s friendliest ghost town.” The ferry to Ketchikan, the nearest Alaskan city, stopped running more than a decade ago.

Read more: http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/20...d-ken-jennings

There are quite a few more of these towns, alot of them share post offices and schools with lines running down the middle of them.

The USA should just take over all of Canada.

This is just the beginning!

Originally Posted by BroncoJoe

The USA should just take over all of Canada.

This is just the beginning!

Make Canada great again.

Some of these poor people have to travel almost two hours just to get back onto American land and have any chance to even breath in freedom

To be honest, your post(s) qualified for tl:dr status. Along with the fact I don't really care. I didn't click on the links to further investigate.

This is going to make the wall difficult.