How Did Part of Minnesota Get Stuck in Canada?
This remote Minnesota community just might be the state's best-kept secret. In fact, most residents of the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes don't even know of its existence.
Technically, this tiny part of Minnesota shouldn't be a part of the US at all. It's a mistake that goes back over 240 years, thanks to a surveying error.
Welcome to Minnesota's Northwest Angle
That's right, this part of Minnesota is stuck in Canada, don't cha know!
Due to a mapping error hundreds of years ago, the founding fathers inadvertently left a chunk of Minnesota inside Canada. These days, it's what you call an exclave. This occurs when part of one country (or state) is entirely surrounded by another country.
It's called the Northwest Angle, the only place in the U.S. where its residents have to travel through a customs station to get to the rest of their own state.
Using outdated mappings of what is now northern Minnesota, the 1783 Treaty of Paris determined a U.S.-Canada border from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. The Northwest Angle and Lake of the Woods were believed to be adjacent to the Mississippi headwaters.In 1798, British explorers found the headwaters to be farther south. By the time the region was officially surveyed by a joint British-American commission in 1824 and 1825, the scale of the Louisiana Purchase had already determined that the Northwest Angle and Minnesota belonged to the United States.
-MinnPost Website
The customs station, known as Jim's Corner, doesn't even have an official on duty, because it's so remote. But anyone who is traveling to or from the Northwest Angle is expected to check in via videophone.
And if you happen to have school-age children living in the angle, good luck helping them with their daily commute.
Every morning, each child has to check in at the customs station, then travel by bus for over an hour to reach the U.S. boundary, where they have to briefly get in a boat, all just get to class each day.
Story Source: Minn Post Website
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