The Border Mistake Destroying a US Town

The US-Canada border is way weirder than you think. All along it are little oddities and places that just don't seem to make a whole lot of sense. And specifically, there's one here in the Pacific Northwest. This is Point Roberts. Well, almost. Point Roberts is actually just a little ways down this road. But if you look at it on a map, Point Roberts, while it's part of the United States, is not connected to it. It's actually connected to Canada. And in many ways, it feels like it should be Canadian. So why is this area part of the US? And most importantly, why is it suddenly dying here in 2026? Well, we've come here to see it for ourselves and see if we can find an answer. Okay, so we are starting here in Canada, mostly because it helps tell the story. But I will say, as a geographer, going to Point Roberts has been an absolute dream. I've come close before because I like going up to Vancouver, BC, but I've just never quite made the trip down here. And so coming back from Vancouver Island on the ferry, we were going to hit the Salishan Peninsula and I figured, when in Rome, I've got to see what it feels like. I got to see what it looks like. And most of all, I got to go there because most people, you included, who me, probably won't ever see Point Roberts. But before I can show you that, we actually have to go across the border checkpoint, which hopefully is easy. We'll see. All right, we have made it to Point Roberts. We just crossed the border. And I will say, super easy. Only took like, I don't know, maybe five minutes of waiting in line and going through. There's not that many people that come here so it was it was easy and it's early. But now we're heading to a lighthouse. It's weird that we're in the United States even though we're kind of still in Canada. Today's just going to be a lot of going through borders because going in we have to go back out to go all the way back home so we have to cross another U.S. border. We have officially made it to Point Roberts which means before we can do anything else we should probably talk about where specifically we're located. So we're on a place called the Salishan Peninsula, which includes both Point Roberts on the south and then the Canadian side in the north. And where we're at right now is very specifically the far southern tip of Point Roberts. Now, because Point Roberts doesn't take up the entire peninsula, it kind of means one thing. This place is tiny. All told, it only covers about 4.9 square miles in size. That's not exactly small enough to walk across, but suffice it to say, we'll be seeing a lot of Point Roberts today. But more specifically and more pertinent to our video, Point Roberts is very close to the major Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In fact, if we were to drive north and we didn't have to deal with customs, we'd be there in a matter of minutes. So suffice it to say, for all intents and purposes, Point Roberts is far more connected to Canada than it is to the United States, both physically and economically. And if we were to drive to Seattle, the next major American city, the next major Washington city, we'd have to first leave Point Roberts, go through Canada, go back to the United States, and then drive about two and a half hours south along I-5. So Point Roberts is isolated, kind of, but it's an isolation made entirely out of politics. And to better help us understand why that is, why this is the case, there is a very specific monument that we're going to go check out that will help us tell that story. Navigating the weird borders of Point Roberts and the travel it takes to explore these geographic anomalies can get pretty hectic. When we're on the move, our schedules are completely all over the place. But no matter where we are, there is one thing I always keep completely consistent. 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Which means, at least on the mainland, everything north is Canada and everything south is the United States. Seems simple, clean, easy, but you'd be wrong. That's because of the situation of Point Roberts. How did the United States and Canada not realize that this tiny peninsula was about to be trapped? To explain that, we have to go all the way back to 1846 to the Oregon Treaty. After years of jointly occupying the region known as the Oregon Country with Britain, which largely consisted of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia, the United States decided it wanted to control everything up to the 54th parallel. This is where we get the very famous historic phrase, 54-40 or fight. The Americans in the region were literally ready to go to war with Britain if they didn't get up to the 54th parallel. Thankfully, cooler heads in Washington and London prevailed, and they agreed on the 49th parallel for the border. But here's the thing, Britain didn't realize that a tiny part of the Washington Peninsula extended about two miles south of the 49th parallel. Which meant, per the treaty that both countries signed, this land was part of the United States. Upon realizing this, Britain made requests to the United States. They were even offering to give the United States other land to compensate for taking back Point Roberts. And here's the weird thing, the United States kind of just ignored their request. You're giving me the silent treatment? So by letting it sit, Point Roberts remained part of the United States by default. But that non-decision by the United States has had consequences for the people living in Point Roberts, even today. And those are mainly economic consequences. But we need to head into town to see how people actually make their money here. Alright, so one thing that we obviously didn't show is that there was border patrol right there next to where we parked our van. And we ended up talking with him for a bit and he gave us some recommendations. One of them is to walk down this path that we're on and we'll get to the water and once again there's like another border and he is there because like we already showed you there's no real fence it's just kind of some grass and a little bit of a road that separates the US and Canada we just started this little hike walk whatever we're doing and it's nice because we have a long drive getting back to Portland today so it's good to stretch our legs but i will say i wasn't expecting it to be this pretty also pretty steep so that'll be fun coming back up but that's okay we're going to be sitting in the car for six hours after we leave Point Roberts so really fun it's not pointed at us because we're in the states i guess if you look just on the other side there's going to be a tiny sign that says do not cross it's an international border so anything beyond there is canada i guess from this pile of logs it's the most unofficial official border i've ever seen all right now with that it is time for us to head a little bit more into town so we can actually see i guess how people live here in point roberts like was not on my bingo card today so just another point of how weird this border is these are all houses in canada including people's backyards which kind of open up into the u.s and then they'll just be like a little sign that says you can't cross there's nothing else stopping people this really goes to show the economic connection between the two countries because if this was the u.s mexico border there would be a much bigger force of wall here and it's just not the case here with U.S. and Canada. Okay so here's the real deal about Point Roberts. What is the 411? The economy here has always been tied to Canada. In fact if you come here you're going to see all of the gas stations are still in liters because most people who come here are actually Canadian. But really the primary driver of the economy of Point Roberts has always been something called the parcel economy. It basically works like this. Given that international shipping from the United States to Canada can be very expensive, many Canadians that live in the Vancouver region have their packages from the U.S. first sent to Point Roberts and then they drive down here and collect it and they save a lot of money. That is the parcel economy. It's an entire industry propped up by the fact that Canadians want things shipped to them from the U.S. for far cheaper than they can get it otherwise. At one point in recent history, there was nearly 40,000 mailboxes here owned by Canadians or about 40 times the population. But here's the weird thing. What happens when that economic lifeline is suddenly cut off? Well, things start to get a little grim. But let's keep exploring Point Roberts before we get to that. Also, one thing to note is that closed down stores are a very common occurrence here in Point Roberts. This place was clearly built for many more people than currently live here or maybe many more people who would come to visit and that's just not the case anymore and as you see places have closed down kind of sad now this behind me is the only grocery store i'm very tempted to go in but i'm also realizing it's probably like any grocery store back home and i can't get a maple bar because technically i'm not in canada so after decades of Point Roberts residents and canadians being able to easily move across the border that all came to a sudden stop in march of 2020 when a little thing turned into a huge global pandemic don't remind me and while obviously this was a really difficult time for just about anybody in the world it was especially difficult for people here in Point Roberts and that's because they were cut off from their lifeline canada of course economically this was crushing point roberts lost approximately 80 percent of its business and virtually became a ghost town overnight this put the few gas stations, banks, and the only grocery store at risk of closing down. The U.S. government had to do things like provide grants to help the community, and they even had to provide an emergency grant just to make sure that the one grocery store did not close. It was almost apocalyptic for this tiny town. They were hanging on by a thread. So imagine for a second that all the business has dried up, the international border is closed, and the only way to get into and out of Point Roberts is by hiring a private boat. A boat? Can I see the boat? And this is sounding pretty bleak because this is all happening during a global pandemic, because of the global pandemic. Confusion and anxiety are at an all-time high. And for the remaining population here on Point Roberts, it was getting really scary with no hospitals, no dentists, and no pharmacists. You see, there's not really any healthcare here on this side of the border, which meant that during the pandemic, the only way to get healthcare was by a ferry that went from Point Roberts to Bellingham. And it stayed like this for almost 18 months till August, 2021. Point Roberts was decimated, but maybe in the years after there would be a reopening, maybe a resurgence. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Oh, okay. All right, we're gonna leave this little neighborhood and talk more about what's happened since COVID. It is funny being inside this neighborhood. Reminds me of a very particular story. there was a player playing for the Vancouver Whitecaps up in Vancouver, BC, who was trying to get his citizenship in the US. And so he had to live in the US. And so he ended up living here in Point Roberts and commuting every single day across the border. I think his name was Kakuta Mana, the geography I play there. I remember I was just a wee little geographer at that point. And even then I was like, so interesting. We have made it to one of our last stops here in Point Roberts. It's a place called Lily Point Marine Park. And I think there's gonna be some really cool cliffs. Fingers crossed. So I think one of the things I've been most impressed by with Point Roberts is that if you look at it like on an aerial map, it just kind of looks like flat topography. It doesn't look like there's like multiple biomes. And here we are now walking through a forest. Earlier we did a hike down sort of a cliff to get down to the ocean. And then there'll be like these big open areas with just like houses. It's just a whole lot more interesting and unique than I think I initially expected. From earlier when I pointed out Vancouver, Island now we're on the other side of Point Roberts and so that right across the way is mainland Washington State. I think a little bit over to the north that would be Canada still maybe like Surrey. So we're filming in 2026 which means that we are now about five or six years away from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and as of now Point Roberts economy is still facing challenges. That parcel economy we talked about earlier, the one that collapsed during the pandemic, it never fully recovered. And after a year and a half of having to change their shopping habits, Canadians never really returned to the parcel economy. Some did, of course, but it was far fewer than what was before 2020. Unfortunately for Point Roberts, this was all disrupted again when the Trump administration announced tariffs on Canadian goods in February 2025. Basically, starting a trade war with the United States' closest ally. Uh, that doesn't sound good. While most of those tariffs were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in early 2026, the damage was done. Canadians no longer trusted or really wanted anything to do with the United States and U.S. goods. And, of course, it was made worse once again when President Trump made constant comments about Canada becoming the 51st state and making statements that Canada was destined to be part of the United States. Basically, Canadians are now boycotting all U.S. goods, and really, the United States. And that leaves Point Roberts caught in the crossfire. It's an unfortunate reality for the tiny town. And it really makes you think, had the United States responded to that first request, allowing Point Roberts to become part of Canada, they might have been better off. Well, it has been so much fun exploring and actually seeing Point Roberts for the first time and in person. In a lot of ways, it's kind of like Gibraltar for me. It's novel. I'm glad we did this. Novel's a good word. It's a very novel thing. And I'm glad you all got to see it with us and learn a little bit more about Point Roberts itself. Because it's a very unique area and a very unique part of the United States and North America. Next week, we are back in Oregon. Ooh, and we're checking out Oregon's hidden giant. It's called a hidden giant? The Newberry Volcanic Complex, which is an absolutely insane looking part of Oregon that I didn't even really know existed until we decided to do this video. See? It's hidden. So come back next week. For another geographic adventure. See you then!