Angle Inlet, MN - temporary road over frozen Lake of the Woods

[M3100]

In the March 29, 2021 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, there is an article about Minnesota's Angle Township (called angle inlet on Rand McNally maps).  This is at the most northern town in the state, and it is a destination for ice fishing.

The only "all-roadway" access to this point is through Manitoba, Canada.  The cross-border Lake of the Woods surrounds the other sides of the town. With the borders with Canada closed due to the pandemic (including those remote entry points), the town had to come up with an alternative.  They built a winter roadway over snowmobile trails and 22 miles over the frozen Lake of the Woods. 

The road was opened in January and will be decommissioned in April, before the spring thaw.  The article does not say where the road connects on the south side of the lake, likely Arnesen or Long Point.

[rte66man]

My question would be why on earth this is a part of Minnesota and not Manitoba? I know my history about he 49th parallel, etc but surely Britain/Canada and the US could have worked this out where Angle Inlet became Canadian. Do they have a controlled border crossing on the road in from Manitoba?

[Scott5114]

Part of the treaty setting the border included reference to the "northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods" without anyone who was actually at the meeting (which took place in Paris, natch) having any clue what the Lake of the Woods was shaped like.


Fig 1.: A bunch of dudes who could never be bothered to drag their asses out to Minnesota to learn what the hell they were talking about.

From there, the border was supposed to continue west to the headwaters of the Mississippi. Problem is, the Mississippi's headwaters are south of the Lake of the Woods, because again, upper management never bothered to check whether the things they were agreeing to reflected reality at all. (If that's not the most American thing ever I don't know what is.) Anyway, when the 49th parallel was agreed to as the boundary later on, they just decided to take a line straight down from the northwest point of the Lake of the Woods to meet the 49th parallel. Which resulted in a peninsula ending up on the east side of the line, thus in the US, with no land connection to the rest of the country. That peninsula is the Northwest Angle.

[oscar]

Do they have a controlled border crossing on the road in from Manitoba?

The border crossing is monitored but unstaffed. People crossing the border (when it's open, which right now it generally isn't due to the pandemic border closure) must report by video or phone to Canadian or U.S. border authorities (depending on whether you're going into or out of Angle Inlet), who will grill you and approve your crossing remotely.

I haven't been there, but I should try it out one of these years.

[kphoger]

My question would be why on earth this is a part of Minnesota and not Manitoba? I know my history about he 49th parallel, etc but surely Britain/Canada and the US could have worked this out where Angle Inlet became Canadian. Do they have a controlled border crossing on the road in from Manitoba?

Other than the border crossing thing, why transfer it from the USA to Canada?  Being a bump on the map isn't really the best reason.

[froggie]

There have been ice roads to Angle Inlet built every winter for years...I made a comment about such in another thread two years ago.  This thread also had a whole discussion on whether or not to transfer the Northwest Angle to Canada.

The COVID pandemic and access through Canada has certainly highlighted those ice roads this year, but the ice roads themselves are not a new thing.

This year's version of the ice road had its mainland connection at Springsteel Island, just north of Warroad.

[zzcarp]

My question would be why on earth this is a part of Minnesota and not Manitoba? I know my history about he 49th parallel, etc but surely Britain/Canada and the US could have worked this out where Angle Inlet became Canadian. Do they have a controlled border crossing on the road in from Manitoba?

Other than the border crossing thing, why transfer it from the USA to Canada?  Being a bump on the map isn't really the best reason.

The best way to solve the border crossing thing is to get an agreement similar to the EU where noncommercial traffic doesn't have to stop and is free-flowing. This would assist in travel and community integration at some of our other border anomalies such as Point Roberts, Washington and Derby Line, Vermont.

[hotdogPi]

My question would be why on earth this is a part of Minnesota and not Manitoba? I know my history about he 49th parallel, etc but surely Britain/Canada and the US could have worked this out where Angle Inlet became Canadian. Do they have a controlled border crossing on the road in from Manitoba?

Other than the border crossing thing, why transfer it from the USA to Canada?  Being a bump on the map isn't really the best reason.

The best way to solve the border crossing thing is to get an agreement similar to the EU where noncommercial traffic doesn't have to stop and is free-flowing. This would assist in travel and community integration at some of our other border anomalies such as Point Roberts, Washington and Derby Line, Vermont.

You can get to and from the Northwest Angle without going into Canada – just not by land. Someone could avoid going through customs entirely by doing this. (While I do think crossing the Canadian border is too restrictive pre-pandemic, there's no reason for the Northwest Angle crossing to not have customs while the rest all do.)

However, I would support this for the isolated section of Derby Line.

[1995hoo]

I wouldn't be surprised if a "transit exception" to the border closure applies to allow residents to transit Manitoba to get to and from the main part of Minnesota, similar to how Canada presently allows US citizens to cross the border en route to Alaska. With that said, though, I wonder whether any Northwest Angle residents leave cars parked in Warroad or somewhere else on the southern shore of the Lake of the Woods and then use a boat (during months when that is feasible, obviously) to head from Angle Inlet to wherever they park. I suppose Point Roberts residents could theoretically do the same thing in Blaine.

[froggie]

there's no reason for the Northwest Angle crossing to not have customs while the rest all do.

However, Northwest Angle *DOES* have Customs...it's just done remotely via video phone.

[hotdogPi]

there's no reason for the Northwest Angle crossing to not have customs while the rest all do.

However, Northwest Angle *DOES* have Customs...it's just done remotely via video phone.

My reply was in response to the post before mine, which isn't reality yet.