#1: Point Roberts, Washington

In 1846, the United States and Britain finally settled their long-standing dispute over the Oregon Country with the signing of the Oregon Treaty. The treaty's first article was its most important:

From the point of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, where the boundary laid down in existing treaties and conventions between the United States and Great Britain terminates, the line of boundary between the territories of the United States and those of her Britannic Majesty shall be continued westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of Fuca's Straits, to the Pacific Ocean: Provided, however, That the navigation of the whole of the said channel and straits, south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, remain free and open to both parties.

An earlier treaty had already extended the division between the US and Canada as far west as the Rockies along the 49th parallel; the Oregon Treaty simply finished the job, extending it all the way to the ocean. Crucially for Britain, Vancouver Island (which dips well over a half degree of latitude south of 49ºN) was exempted from the line, maintaining their control over the full island (and particularly the port of Victoria).

Most likely the treaty was drawn up by bureaucrats thousands of miles away, because it didn't take into account a tiny spit of land located east of the ocean boundary but south of 49ºN latitude: Point Roberts.

Google Maps satellite image showing Point Roberts.

The closest the U.S. mainland gets to Point Roberts is several miles away across Boundary Bay. Driving to the U.S. takes 40 minutes and requires two border crossings, according to the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce web site, and that's just to get to the nearest pharmacy. Need a hospital? Insurance isn't going to pay for a Canadian visit, so you're stuck driving to Bellingham, 70 minutes away.

Only about 1,300 people live in Point Roberts, but according to an article in Canadian paper The Province, "in summer the population swells to about 4,500 and the majority of residents are vacationing Canadians." Point Roberts seems in many ways to be at least as Canadian as it is American - many of even the full-time residents are retired Canadians, it's only within the past two decades that the Point got a U.S. area code (using Vancouver's before that), and some Canadian businesses find it expedient to maintain American mailing addresses at Point Roberts' post office.

Google Maps satellite image of the border crossing, with Point Roberts below and Canada above.

Like many geopolitically isolated areas, Point Roberts once talked of joining the region to which it was more closely attached, but it never happened, and today it's still a secluded piece of America that just happens to be better attended by Canadian vacationers.

A political map showing Point Roberts in relation to Vancouver Island.