Point Roberts (an American city stranded at the tip of a Canadian peninsula)

Atlas Obscura ^ | April 22, 2016

[NYer]

Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce

[CIB-173RDABN]

In the early 1970s my wife and I made an effort to travel to Point Roberts just to see what was there. Not much as it turned out. We did not have passports back then but I do not remember any problem crossing the borders.

[armydawg505]

So the low crime rate is because of strict border security? Too bad that concept won’t work elsewhere on our border. At least that is what we are told.

[Jim W N]

What a riot. Wonder what’s it’s like to live there. Looks cold.

[nickcarraway]

The U.S. almost went to war with Canada.

[gorush]

Beautiful area! The missus and I lived aboard a sailboat for four years based out of Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands. I used to occasionally play at a golf course on the mainland that looked across to Point Roberts, Semiahmoo as I recall...very nice course.

[gorush]

"Looks cold."

Not as cold as you'd think. It seldom snows there due to the maritime climate and Japanese current.

[Michael.SF.]

I was on a business trip to Vancouver (2004) and one evening I took a drive down there, just out of curiosity. Arrived around 7 or 8 PM. It was winter time so it was dark. There was no border crossing and not much to see really. Typical suburban homes, very quiet, I drove around and left.

[fella]

Sounds like a good place for a private ferry boat system.

[Jim W N]

Hmmm, I know about the cold Alaskan current, don’t know about the Japanese current unless that’s the warm current that goes north from Japan to Alaska and then becomes the cold Alaskan current going south. If so, I would have thought the prevailing current there would be the southbound, cold Alaskan current.

[DesertSapper]

1818 event: "agreement had accidently cut off a tiny piece of Canada and given it to the United States."?

Color me confused: Canada isn't nearly that old. It didn't become a country (from multiple colonies) until after the US Civil War.

[angry elephant]

I looked at housing prices there a few years ago and they are pretty steep. Seemed to be a lot more expensive than in the surrounding Canadian areas.

[SeeSharp]

We did not have passports back then but I do not remember any problem crossing the borders.

I got into Canada as recently as the summer of 2001 with just my driver's license, and got back into the US with just my birth certificate.

[gorush]

The water was, indeed, cold. You always needed a wet suit to do anything under the boat. The cold water kept the barnacles to a minimum when compared to Florida, for example.

[jjotto]

The ‘Northwest Angle’ (Lake of the Woods County) in Minnesota has a similar situation. Access is either by water or by entering Canada.

[NonValueAdded]

very warm since Fukishima :)

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Define ‘cold’.

From a FL or S. CA perspective, yes, it is COLD! From a Canadian, or ND perspective, the weather is mild. The ‘lower mainland’ of BC (aka metro Hongcouver) is known as’Lotusland’. Point Roberts is South of Hongcouver.

[Chuckster]

We lived in Friday Harbor (San Juan Island) for a year. While there, we learned that a young Captain George Pickett faced off against British Red Coats in the border dispute on that island.

[NonValueAdded]

♫ ... you could even say it glows ... ♫

[COBOL2Java]

Almost Canada! Wonder who they’ll vote for on May 24th? :-)