scrubbedexpat091

For those that may not know, Pt. Roberts, Washington isn't physically attached to the US, it's attached to British Columbia, and relies on Canadian's for just about every aspect of their economy.

With the border closed to non-essential travel, Canadian's unable to cross for their parcels, groceries, gas etc, the town is dying and has only received limited support from Washington State, it took months for the state to even set up a ferry link to mainland Washington, and it only runs a couple days per week.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ovid-1.5740806

They do have a grocery store, when the border is open typically see's 5,000 customers per day, mostly Canadian's, currently averaging 50 customers per day. One of the banks in town has closed up permanently.

HDWill

Has it ever been considered to transfer Point Roberts to Canada? Maybe by offering all the current full-time residents a bunch of money. Kids having to bus three hours a day and cross two international borders just to go to school is an absurd situation.

scrubbedexpat091

It's been brought up on a small scale with small groups, but as far as I know never at the federal level of either country or at any level that matters.

Some of the services are provided by Canadian infrastructure, the drinking water comes from Canada for example, while the electricity service provider is a US company, that company just buys electricity from BC Hydro, the cable and internet used to be provided by a Canadian company but they pulled out of the market as it was too small to justify upgrading the infrastructure. They used to even have a BC area code and phone number until the 1980's.

Back before it became the shopping and parcel place, BC residents would go there on Sunday's to drink booze since at that time drinking on Sunday in BC wasn't permitted. (BC legalized Sunday drinking in 1986)

kimilseung

If that happened in this area, then the pigs died for nothing!
STICK A CLOSING BRACKET ON THE LINK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War_(1859)

HDWill

I would guess that the current real estate owners would really benefit from a transfer, as the area became an exurb of Vancouver. Plus a one-time cash payment of $200k or more each would make sense to sweeten the pot.

But there would likely be at least a few old coots who would rant about losing "muh country" which would turn a lot of US public opinion against the idea. Which would ignore the fact that the community only exists because of 19th century geopolitics and a dumb surveying error.

caretaker

Thanks for posting that! It contains a lot of unexpected incidental information.

scrubbedexpat091

Poor pigs, innocent creatures caught up between 2 powers bickering.

There are some other oddities along the border,.

Hyder, Alaska is another. It's not connected by road to anywhere in the US, only through Canada, specifically Stewart, BC.

Hyder is interesting in that the US doesn't even maintain a border crossing there, one can enter freely from Canada into the US side, although Canada does maintain an official border crossing. Because anyone can cross into Hyder from Canada without going through US Customs and Immigration, if you take a float plane flight to Ketchikan on arrival in Ketchikan passengers have to clear US Customs.

Hyder gets it electricity directly from BC Hydro as if it were Canadian, and even has a BC area code.



Hyder is much smaller, and even more dependent on Canada.

Northwest Angle, Minnesota.

Campobello Island, New Brunswick is a Canadian practical enclave.

There is a Canadian native reserve separated from rest of Canada by a river, only way via land is through New York State.

One summer I am going to drive up to Stewart, BC and Hyder to take a look around, seems like a very pretty place, a pretty far drive though, 15 hours from Kelowna roughly, so at least a 4 day trip I would say maybe 5.

caretaker

My sister and BIL rented a site for a big motorhome in Pt Roberts years ago, maybe kept it for 7 - 8 years if memory serves. I only went once, but thought was ok, as far as trailer parks go. The little store did duty as post office and liquor store, and I think I had 100 3oz fishing leads sent there once (one sister brought another 100 back from Florida... I got the word, no more sinkers).

Shard

Never really understood the point of Point Roberts. Visted once for about an hour.

scrubbedexpat091

No real point to Point Roberts..... Just one of those things that wasn't noticed during the border negotiations back in the day and seems by the time it was noticed, both US and Britain considered negotiations closed and done.

There are some interesting quirks along the border, I guess maps were not as accurate back then.

caretaker

My sister and BIL found it handy just to get out of Vancouver/Surrey for the weekend without putting up with a long drive or heavy traffic. The BIL does a business in high end audio equipment (Blue Circle amps and used to sell Harbeth speakers, but I think he may have different speakers now) and it was handy for shipping sometimes.

scrubbedexpat091

I meant more as to why to exists in the first place, there wasn't any real point for it to exist, but since it does exist it now does serve a purpose, mainly gas, groceries, and parcels..... to Canadians and a cheaper alternative for summer homes for Canadians.

Shard

If Trump were more sinister, he could locate a refugee holding camp there and keep the Canadian border patrol fairly light.

penguinsix

I think there is another place too called the Northwest Angle, which is part of Minnesota but landlocked by Canada and a lake due to a mapping error.

update: Actually there are several places like this:

Practical exclaves of the United States[edit]

The U.S. portion of this lake peninsula has a land border with Canada, making land access to it possible only through Canada. Image by U.S. Geological Survey.[74]48°59′54″N 99°52′44″WAlaska is a non-contiguous U.S. state bounded by the Bering Sea; the Arctic and Pacific oceans; and Canada's British Columbia and Yukon Territory. Additionally, because of the terrain, several municipalities in southeast Alaska (the "Panhandle") are inaccessible by road, except via Canada. Specifically, the town of Hyder, Alaska is accessible only through Stewart, British Columbia, or by floatplane. Moreover, Haines and Skagway are accessible by road only through Canada, although there are car ferries which connect them to other Alaskan places.

In Minnesota, Elm Point, two small pieces of land to its west (Buffalo Bay Point), and the Northwest Angle are bounded by the province of Manitoba and Lake of the Woods.

In Vermont, the Alburgh Tongue, as well as Province Point, which is the small end of a peninsula east of Alburgh, are bounded by Quebec and Lake Champlain.[b]

Point Roberts, Washington is bounded by British Columbia, the Strait of Georgia, and Boundary Bay.

Shard

Indeed. Saw a YT or BBC clip about it a few months ago.