# UK citizen wants to sail Mississippi from Canada south unimpeded. Does Treaty of Paris allow this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 22, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033 "2011-12-22T02:26:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/21 "2011-12-23T06:22:52Z")
[I posted](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14576677#post14576677) about Freya Hoffmeister’s quest to circumnavigate South America in a kayak. Is she going to be able to paddle through the Panama Canal when she gets to it? She’s rounding Tierra del Fuego right now. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/22 "2011-12-23T15:21:35Z")
And also remember that at the time of the Treaty of Paris, Canada and the UK were one nation, so the “UK” referenced in the treaty might actually apply to the modern nation of Canada too, ‘allowing’ Canadian citizens that right too. ---
**Author:** ![Ispolkom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47774/32.png) [@Ispolkom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ispolkom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/23 "2011-12-23T15:31:45Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > For something really unusual; you can go North up the Mississippi, make a portage into the Red River Basin in North Dakota, then all the way to Hudson’s bay. > Eric Sevareid of TV news did it when he was 19 in 1935 (at least the Red river to Hudson bay part) Actually, you paddle up the Minnesota River to reach the Red River of the North. One part of that book I found remarkable: deer were so rare that he didn’t see one until he was almost to Canada. Now, you’d probably see herds of them in the Minnesota River bottomlands. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/24 "2011-12-23T15:52:15Z")
[http://steamboattimes.com/images/maps/map\_mississippi\_watershed1160x971.jpg](http://steamboattimes.com/images/maps/map_mississippi_watershed1160x971.jpg) A map of the entire Mississippi rivrer basin. A tiny portion does stretch into Canada, and you _might_ be able to legally claim it’s part fo the same river system and therefore . However, I doubt the tiny bit inside Canada can actually be used for transportation, maybe not even for something canoe-sized, without a lot of portaging. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/25 "2011-12-23T16:28:39Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > [http://steamboattimes.com/images/maps/map\_mississippi\_watershed1160x971.jpg](http://steamboattimes.com/images/maps/map_mississippi_watershed1160x971.jpg) > > A map of the entire Mississippi rivrer basin. A tiny portion does stretch into Canada, and you _might_ be able to legally claim it’s part fo the same river system and therefore . However, I doubt the tiny bit inside Canada can actually be used for transportation, maybe not even for something canoe-sized, without a lot of portaging. The Milk River would probably work: > **[Milk River (Alberta–Montana)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_River_%28Montana-Alberta%29)** > > Milk River is a tributary of the Missouri River, 729 miles (1,173 km) long, in the U.S. state of Montana and the Canadian province of Alberta. Rising in the Rocky Mountains, the river drains a sparsely populated, semi-arid watershed of 23,800 square miles (62,000 km2), ending just east of Fort Peck, Montana. > It is formed in Glacier County in northwestern Montana, 21 miles (34 km) north of Browning, Montana, by the confluence of its South and Middle forks. The 30-mile (48 km) long South Fork an... You are going to wind up in the Fresno Reservoir, and have to portage around the [Fresno Dam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno_Dam), obviously. It looks like there might be a few smaller reservoirs as well. People do canoe the Canadian part which is in a designated natural area. People do canoe the Canadian part which is in a designated natural area. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/26 "2011-12-23T16:41:18Z")
And, as noted by that article, you can try the Big Muddy Creek or the Poplar River, too. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/27 "2011-12-23T16:53:40Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > The Milk River would probably work: > > [Milk River (Alberta–Montana) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_River_%28Montana-Alberta%29) > > You are going to wind up in the Fresno Reservoir, and have to portage around the [Fresno Dam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno_Dam), obviously. It looks like there might be a few smaller reservoirs as well. People do canoe the Canadian part which is in a designated natural area. People do canoe the Canadian part which is in a designated natural area. Well that certainly bears repeating. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/28 "2011-12-23T17:00:03Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > II don’t think the lock-keepers will want him taking the inner tube through their locks, and the associated weirs would be far too dangerous for him to float through in an inner tube. He might end up gratefully dead. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/29 "2011-12-23T17:07:26Z")
> [@SandyHook](#): > > Well that certainly bears repeating. Damned 5 minute edit window - I changed the preceding sentence, and managed to cut and paste the final one as well without replacing it. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/30 "2011-12-23T17:30:48Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > So, alas, it appears the duty-free status of Peltries may have been superseded. Unless Akins v. U.S had something to say about the matter. It turns out that [Akins v. United States](http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?page=3&xmldoc=19771773551F2d1222_11536.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985&SizeDisp=7) concerned hiking boots. (No joke.) But it discusses many other aspects of the Jay Treaty, including free passage and peltries, and should be read by anyone seriously interested in the subject matter of this thread. The “free passage” provision, it appears, is very much in force and actually had application in several cases in the Twentieth Century. The duty exemptions, however (including peltries), have been repealed by law, and the courts have upheld that repeal despite the treaty. As a non-lawyer I am unable to understand such distinctions but there you have it. Poor Mr. Akins, a Penobscot Indian, did end up having to pay $1.20 in duties on his hiking boots. > [@smiling bandit](#): > > A map of the entire Mississippi river basin. A tiny portion does stretch into Canada . . . Indeed, when the US and UK agreed to set the boundary at the 49th parallel, rather than follow the river drainage, the US lost a tiny and insignificant part of what became Alberta and Saskatchewan. The UK/Canada, however, lost a big chunk of what became Minnesota and North Dakota, down to the “north-south continental divide” on the MN-SD border. The British had granted the land in question to [the Earl of Selkirk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Colony) in 1811, and by 1818 he was out of favor, so they didn’t much care if they signed away a big part of his land. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033/31 "2011-12-24T04:06:14Z")
I think the reality of the situation is that you should process across the border normally. If you are pretty certain that you will be denied (e.g. because of a serious criminal record) and you want to use this as a justification to force them to let you in to the US, then you’d better have a GOOD lawyer right there at the border with you who has done the research to confirm that he feels that you are legally entitled to pass unimpeded. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-citizen-wants-to-sail-mississippi-from-canada-south-unimpeded-does-treaty-of-paris-allow-this/607033.md?page=1)