Point Roberts, Washington: America’s Appendix

In 1846, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to finalize their border. It set the 49th north line of latitude as the border from the Lake of the Woods in Minnesota/Manitoba to Puget Sound in Washington/British Columbia. As part of the deal, the British were able to keep Vancouver Island south of the 49th parallel. For the most part, the border worked as advertised, except for one thing. Just below Vancouver, there was a bit of land on the tip of a peninsula which dipped below the 49th parallel. As per the terms of the treaty, that hunk of land was United States territory and today is Point Roberts, Washington.

What makes Point Roberts is that it is totally cut off from the rest of the United States by land. To get there, you have to drive 30 miles through Canada. The total size Point Roberts is only about 4 square miles and it has a population of about 1,500 people. It seems to have created a niche for itself as a place for Canadians to get cheap gas and to set up post office boxes to get mail which can’t be shipped to Canada. Despite its small size, Point Roberts has five gas stations and four places where you can get a post office box outside of the actual post office.

Welcome to America!
Welcome to America!
Given its proximity with Canada, there are several things you’ll find there you will not find anywhere else in the US.

  • All of the gas stations quote prices in liters, not gallons (the lady working the counter where I purchased gas said that 60% of their business was from Canada).
  • My iPhone was unable to pick up an ATT signal, so if I wanted to make a call I had to pay international roaming charges, even though I was in the United States.
  • The cash registers I saw were able to handle both US and Canadian currency on the fly. I’m told Canadian currency is used more often than American currency in Point Roberts.
  • The physical border has no fence. The backyards of houses in Canada literally emptied into the US. I saw swing sets, gardens, and hammocks a few feet from the borderline with nothing between it and America.
  • There is a special card locals can get for getting through the border with no hassle. Residents of Point Roberts have to go to Canada for almost everything, and everything has to come through Canada.
That small curb is all that is stopping an Al Qaeda horde from storming across our border
A small curb is all that is stopping an Al Qaeda horde from storming across our border

There is one other hunk of American soil you have to drive through Canada to get to, and that is at the other end of the 49th parallel border: The Northwest Angle in Minnesota. I went there several years ago and the border is even less controlled than Point Roberts. You see a sign indicating you are entering the US and a video phone booth you are supposed to use to contact immigration. The phone didn’t work when I was there.

Point Roberts is truly America’s appendix; a tiny dangling, vestigial leftover of a time long forgotten.

5 thoughts on “Point Roberts, Washington: America’s Appendix”

  1. Hi Gary! Hope you’re enjoying your Northwest trip. I’m here in Vancouver, WA and wanted to wish you well…take care!

  2. If you go to Vancouver/Squamish, I have a strong recommendation: go in the winter so you can see the Bald Eagles! A lot of them winter in Squamish. I got fantastic pics of them at the fish hatchery, where they feast on the fish that died after spawning. One young bald eagle was so close to us that he filled the camera frame on mid-zoom!

  3. As a person that travels FREQUENTLY between the US and Canada, I have to laugh at this LOL. It’s amazing to see places like this that basically “merge” together and to top it off, the immigration phone doesn’t even work. LOL However, if you’re traveling through a big city say Montreal or Vancouver, immigration takes you through the ringer.

    Beautiful blog btw, traveling around the world is one of my biggest dreams.

  4. Have you read the books “Investment Biker” or “Adventure Capitalist”? They were written by Jim Rogers who spend 5 years circling the globe first on a motorcycle then in a car.

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