I’ve crossed the U.S. / Canada border in three locations: Detroit/Windsor, Port Huron / Sarnia & Niagara Falls. In each instance I was semi-grilled as to my intentions, my citizenship, my destination, etc., and was allowed to pass only when the border agent was satisfied that I was a solid citizen.
Yet, when I look at a map, I see a good thousand-mile stretch between Washington and Minnesota, and another long border up New England way.
My questions: What is it like along this border? Are there towns? Roads that cross the border? Agents patrolling? What is there to stop one from strolling from one country to the next with an armload of contraband?
It just seems odd that they are so rigid at the handful of busy crossing points, yet this seemingly endless border exists just down the way.
mmm
We drove south across the border at Wild Horse, Alberta, which is in the middle of nowhere and is approached by a road that has a sign warning, “No residences or services next 137 km”… and got the same grilling. Mind you, the border itself appeared to be a simple wire farmer’s fence.
I recall years ago (15?) going through some kind of small border crossing at the Vermont/Quebec border that had a self-reporting type of process. I can’t quite remember everything about it, but I believe you filled out and dropped off a declaration form and were on your merry way. Sometimes it was manned, and sometimes it wasn’t.
I remember we went through and then got chased by a border guard because it was manned at the time and we weren’t aware. Everything turned out fine though.
Given the increased security aujourd’hui this process probably doesn’t exist now.
Yes, there are crossings regularly, spaced out just as frequently as you might expect to see bridges over a major river. The only exceptions I can think of are Aroostook County, Maine, where there’s very little population and on either side of International Falls, Minnesota where there’s also lots of wilderness and parklands.
When I’ve crossed the border, I’ve always goten the same questions, although I find them to always be asked in a cordial and professional manner, and followed by a very sincere “Welcome to Canada” for a poor guy who probably says it a thousand times a day. I imagine the questions asked are adjusted at any crossing having lots of problems with drugs, smuggling, false documents, duty evasion and other border-crossing misdeeds.
FWIW, Canada’s customs officers are a treat compared to California’s Agricultural Inspections, which, IMHO, are massively unconstitutional.
Except for the Seattle and Vancouver region, the international border in Washington, Idaho and Western Montana is largely wilderness. There several highway crossings, I believe they are all staffed 24/7, and at least three rail crossings that I know of, also staffed. I assume the border is patrolled regularly, probably by air. In theory, there are plenty of places where a person could simply walk across, but there’s not much incentive to do so. You’d still be miles from anywhere, even a primitive road. The only way to cross would be on foot, or maybe horseback, probably a few places where it could be done in a small boat, but the terrain is simply too rugged to allow any kind of motorized access.
I have a vague memory from years ago, I believe it was at a border crossing in Idaho, of noticing a cleared strip along what I assumed was the border, presumably to deliniate the line and make patrolling easier. It was about 40 feet wide, the sort of clearing you might see along a high-tension power line. It didn’t seem very effective.
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I grew up in northern New England. It used to be a relatively easy matter to walk across the border without going through a border post. The local media would always be reporting people who had been arrested for doing this and it would be a couple of dozen each week - and presumedly many others were more successful. My brother, who lived on the border, saw people (and monkeys, but that’s another story) come walking out of the woods on the trail next to his house.
But those days are over. There is now a pretty continuous line of fences and electronic monitoring devices along the border and nobody can just walk across it unnoticed.
One of the odder U.S.-Canada border crossings is “Jim’s Corner”, on the only road leading into the Northwest Angle of Minnesota. You stop at the hut, press either the “Canada” or “U.S.” button, and are connected via videophone to the customs agents of the appropriate country.
ETA: If you’re curious, Wikipedia has an exhaustive list of all the U.S.-Canada road crossing points.
Out here in Alberta, the border with Montana is largely unprotected. On the prairie, there may be a pagewire fence (like a fence a farmer might use to keep livestock in their field), but that’s about it. In the mountains, there is a cleared swath, as in Rumor’s link.
I think that what keeps people from wandering back and forth as they please is remoteness. The area on both sides is sparsely populated–there are a few small towns, but nothing on the scale of Windsor-Detroit, Buffalo-Fort Erie, or San Diego-Tijuana. It is difficult to get to the border in many areas without trespassing on somebody’s land and having to go off-road; and if you do succeed in doing so, you’re still miles from anywhere on the other side. But there are good roads leading to the border crossings–to give an example, the Coutts (AB)-Sweetgrass (MT) crossing is open 24/7, and sits at the north end of I-15, continuing as AB 4.
Interestingly, there is a hiking trail in Waterton Lakes National Park that will take me to within 200 yards or so of the US border. What would prevent me from continuing south into the US? Well, the trail ends in a dense forest, it’s fairly remote, it’s in the mountains, and there is nothing for miles on the Montana side; but there are also plenty of signs warning not to go further because of grizzly bears. It is bear country out there–I’ve seen a few in that park (from the safety of my car)–but I’ve always smiled at the fact that at this point on the border, what prevents illegal border crossings are not fences and CCTV, but grizzly bears and remoteness.
Stanstead/Derby Line? The “problem” with that border crossing is that it is literally in the middle of town - in theory, just crossing some of the streets would require you reporting that you have gone into the other country, even if it’s just to ask the neighbours for a cup of sugar (really, has anyone ever actually done that?). The library has an actual line painted through it, since it sits on the border itself.
I’m not sure about the staffing, though, since I haven’t been to Stanstead in a long time. We used to go party at a friend’s house, then cross into Derby Line for breakfast at a great little diner, but always at times when it was staffed (and usually involving a search of the car, since apparently a bunch of hungover teenagers in a BMW - with an Indian-born driver - is a very suspicious thing!)
Oooo… Yup. That sounds about right. I think we originally did in fact cross over the border on one of the normal streets and that’s when we were chased down and escorted back to customs. There were three or four of us retuning to Canada on business, and were kinda lost. Way back pre-GPS days.
The US-Canadian border along Washington, Idaho and Montana (outside of the far western metroplex of Seattle/Vancouver) may be sparely populated and remote, but it is patrolled. On the US side there are regular horse patrols, along with some 4WD. Then there are the air patrols by helicopter, fixed winged and other air assets (and beyond) that no one will confirm. There is even electronic surrveilence going on with more to come. Of course, that’s stuff that no will talk about, either.
Still, there is considerable smuggling going on across the border, in both directions. Drugs, money and human cargo are the top three. Smuggling is on foot, horseback, air and via water (floating as well as underwater). It’s not easy because of the remoteness and topography of the land. It’s not uncommon to come across crashed aircraft in remote areas that may or may not still contain bodies, money and or drugs, years later.
There was a story on NPR a few years ago about the horseback patrols on the border in Washington, Idaho and Montana. At one point the reporter asked if the patrols had ever actually caught anyone doing anything, and the answer was no (though they like to think they’re a deterent).
Supposedly there are large amounts of marijuana in particular coming south and guns going north, but both border control agencies seem to have decided it’s a more effective use of resources to patrol the towns and roads near the border and doing more human-intelligence type work than actually trying to patrol the long wilderness border. It takes about two seconds to cross the swath of cleared timber at the border, so obviously catching someone in the act is a difficult proposition with any kind of conventional means. Maybe improvements in the remote monitoring technology and more money being avaliable to the Border Patrol will change that.
The last time I made a transit run (Buffalo to Detroit and beyond via the QEW/401), the border guard on the US side of the Ambassador Bridge seemed nice enough, but gave me quite a grilling; what was I going to be doing in Michigan, how long would I be there,w hi I was meeting, and so on. I’m a US citizen who was basically returning to the US. Was it any of his business about my plans in Michigan, another state in the same country. for the weekend?
