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Spring Banter - Pushing up Tulips

Baroclinic Zone

By Baroclinic Zone,
in New England

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Nittany88

Nittany88

Posted
Posted

The one that's crazy to me is the border in Beebe Plain/Derby Line, VT. The border is literally the center of the road (Canusa Street), so you have the US on the south side, where LITERALLY your neighbors to the north (side of the street) are Canadian. Notice the Canadian street signs going west (north side), and the Vermont plates and America flags on the south side.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/jblpF

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canusa_Street

 

https://sites.google.com/site/hanxiaoqiang02/canusa

 

"In the two sided town of Derby Line/Stanstead there are two streets that cross the line without any checkpoints. Technically, any time anyone crosses the international line, they are subject to having to report, in person, to a port of entry inspection station for the country they are entering. This makes traffic on the streets that cross the line without a checkpoint, Maple Street/Rue Ball and Pelow Hill/Rue Lee fairly light, as it is more convenient to cross at Main Street/Rue Dufferin, where checkpoints are often set up for “drive thru” service.

Pedestrians on the sidewalk are also technically required to report as soon as they cross the line. Visiting someone on the other side of the line, even if the building is next door, means walking around to the inspection station first, or risk being an outlaw. Playing catch on Maple Street/Rue Ball would be an international event, and would break no laws presumably, so long as each time the ball was caught, the recipient marched over to customs to declare the ball.

When the international line crosses through a building, a different set of rules applies. Residents of the small apartment building in Derby Line/Stanstead do not need to report if they cross the line inside the building. They only need to report if they leave out the side of the building that opens on to a different country than the one they entered the building from. The building’s interior ends up being an international space, a bubble in the otherwise nearly infinitely thin international line.

The most prominent building on the line is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. It was built intentionally on the border in 1901, as a gift to the community, and a symbol of international harmony. The entrances, one leading into the library, and the other heading up the stairs to the opera house/theater, however, are in the United States.

And though there are no restrictions on movement within the building, the placement on the border can lead to complications. The planning of a recent renovation project at the Library/Opera House took three years due to the conflicting construction, fire safety and historic preservation regulations of the two countries. Some of the public bathrooms, for example, sit on the border that runs diagonally through the building, and plumbers from the US and Canada had to be involved to make sure the work met their respective building codes. A fire escape for the theater was located on the Canadian side, but had to be recognized by the Americans, even though it wasn’t in their jurisdiction. If there were a fire in the opera house, then the evacuees would have to head immediately to the immigration station up the road.

The line painted on the floor inside the library and opera house is more than just a novelty. Apparently it was required in order to show which portions of the structure and furnishings would be covered by the separate Canadian and American insurance policies."

 

I also believe its the only section of the CA/US border where there is not the required 6 meter "no touching zone" either accomplished by the cut in the trees or a river/body of water.

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tamarack

tamarack

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Yes, there are sensors and cameras.

 

At the start of a timber harvest near the border on the state ownership in Sandy Bay Twp, north of Jackman, several agents (Border Patrol, maybe some Homeland Security) rushed in to ensure that their sensors wouldn't get crushed under 30-ton logging machinery.  Customs was a mile to the west, but a P.Q. range road ended only a few hundred yards away, too convenient to be left unsurveyed.

 

Nittany:  The same situation exists, though with far fewer streets/residences affected, in Estcourt Station at the northern tip of Maine.

 

Could not happen today, but about 40 years ago a resident of Sully, Quebec (40 miles NW of Ft. Kent) was stealing wood from the American side. He'd set up boards thru a hundred yards of swamp and used a wheelbarrow to lug 4-ft pulp sticks over that catwalk and across the frozen St.Francis River.  After they stopped laughing (the quantity of wood involved was rather small), the landowners' agents merely asked him to cease and desist, and once busted, he didn't try again. 

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Cold Miser

Cold Miser

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Posted

yes that's it. that picture looks down the border. so Canada is on the left, USA is on the right. The border goes right down the middle.

if you look at a google earth and go up to the canadian border, you will see that the entire border has a cut just like that. i assume you could hike/walk right into canada at that location, but I doubt you would get very far. the trees have eyes.

Pretty amazing. I suppose the patrols come through a few times/ hour. Most of the video would probably just show tourists straddling the "border". Quite boring for the most part. Assuming both countries have the video surveillance?
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powderfreak

powderfreak

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When the international line crosses through a building, a different set of rules applies. Residents of the small apartment building in Derby Line/Stanstead do not need to report if they cross the line inside the building. They only need to report if they leave out the side of the building that opens on to a different country than the one they entered the building from. The building’s interior ends up being an international space, a bubble in the otherwise nearly infinitely thin international line.[/size][/font][/color]

The most prominent building on the line is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. It was built intentionally on the border in 1901, as a gift to the community, and a symbol of international harmony. The entrances, one leading into the library, and the other heading up the stairs to the opera house/theater, however, are in the United States.

And though there are no restrictions on movement within the building, the placement on the border can lead to complications. The planning of a recent renovation project at the Library/Opera House took three years due to the conflicting construction, fire safety and historic preservation regulations of the two countries. Some of the public bathrooms, for example, sit on the border that runs diagonally through the building, and plumbers from the US and Canada had to be involved to make sure the work met their respective building codes. A fire escape for the theater was located on the Canadian side, but had to be recognized by the Americans, even though it wasn’t in their jurisdiction. If there were a fire in the opera house, then the evacuees would have to head immediately to the immigration station up the road.

The line painted on the floor inside the library and opera house is more than just a novelty. Apparently it was required in order to show which portions of the structure and furnishings would be covered by the separate Canadian and American insurance policies."

Some crazy stuff...can you imagine living in an apartment on the border where you can exit to either country depending on what side of the building you walk out of?

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tamarack

tamarack

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Some crazy stuff...can you imagine living in an apartment on the border where you can exit to either country depending on what side of the building you walk out of?

 

"North Woods Law", the Animal Planet show about Maine game wardens, had one segment concerning Canadian hunters possibly seeking moose on the Maine side - looked to be in the St. Juste area where the border is on flat boggy land rather than the rocky height of land or the St. John River, and showed tree stands on the Canada-side edge of the cleared strip.  The P.Q. chasseurs have long been calling Maine moose to the Canadian side where they could be taken legally, and the wardens had a tip that some hunters were not waiting for the animals to clear customs.

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Professional Lurker

Professional Lurker

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Oh you can just walk into Canada...but you can bet you'll have agents scrambling when their motion detectors and game cameras pick you up. I had a friend who grew up in Derby Line and as high school students they used to use ATV's to go back and forth over the border on trails in the woods, as it would take officers like 45 minutes to respond.

My parents just sold their house last summer on east grand lake. Lake about the size of the quabbin, one side maine, the other side nb. We had relatives with cottages on the Maine side, their house was in nb. We would visit each other all the time by boat without checking in at customs.

Technically you shouldn't even drop anchor on the wrong side of the imaginary line.

...And during the winter when the lake is frozen? Driving across the lake is no problem.

Fishing was interesting, as you couldn't fish in the choices or waters of the other country without liscences.

de94e18ba6f58b154be2655342c4e9e2.jpg

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mreaves

mreaves

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I believe the opera house in Derby Line is split by the border. The old town clerk's office in Norton was right on the border too. After you visited you had to check in with customs. Things have really changed on the border since 9/11. I remember coming back from Sherbrooke through Averill in the wee hours once and having to wait for the border agent, who just stuck his head out of the building took a look at us and waved us through. It's a little more strict nowadays.

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TalcottWx

TalcottWx

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Ha, I almost went to the game too.

Let me know if you're around. Employee friend and fam get free bowling, pool, half off food.

great gig. Lots of people watching and when the game starts the place clears out and I basically get to watch TV for 3-4 hours. Put my two weeks in at Whisky Saigon. Had enough of dealing with the people there especially with the status of the neck. Internship with a PR firm downtown starts May 11th. First steps to a big boy job.

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SJonesWX

SJonesWX

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Pretty amazing. I suppose the patrols come through a few times/ hour. Most of the video would probably just show tourists straddling the "border". Quite boring for the most part. Assuming both countries have the video surveillance?

in the area where that pic was taken, I don't see how that part of the border could be patrolled. very unforgiving terrain. the snowmobile tracks you see are from locals i think. they (both countries) probably "patrol" it via air and camera.

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moneypitmike

moneypitmike

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Posted

LOL, I only glimpsed at it from my phone.  I don't understand, did they die and someone put them out for the coyote's dinner? Not making anymore milk so take 'em behind the wood shed?  I guess I'm just confused as to why someone would put out random cows for wildlife to munch on, cows aren't that cheap.

 

No, they're not killed, they just died.  If one becomes incapacitated, they'll put it down.  Regardless, once dead you move them out of the pasture into the woods and let nature do the rest.

 

The circle of life......

Here's what it looks like if you cross the border at pittsburg... it's amazing... the road just drops straight down into a little town served by the worst roads I've ever been on.  It's so totally unexpected after driving through 20 miles of nothing but undeveloped forest.  You go from windswept tundra to normal little town in about two miles.

 

attachicon.gifcanada.jpg

 

attachicon.gifcanada 2.jpg

 

I can't see the Dunkin' Donuts.

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klw

klw

Posted
Posted

This was one of the sadder border stories:

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/16/news/adna-mborder16

That afternoon, Jalbert was heading home after a hard day's work clearing brush in the Canadian woods. He steered his green 1984 Jeep Cherokee under a railroad pass to Frontier Street, hung a right and then a left to the Gaz Bar.
 
He ignored a sign to check in at the U.S. Customs office, which was closed at the time.
 
A stream of vehicles with Canadian plates lined up for gas that is 20 to 30 cents a gallon cheaper than across the border. Jalbert pumped his, paid with $15 in Canadian money and told the attendant, "Merci." Then he headed out the station's driveway.
 
Ten feet of dirt separated Jalbert from Canada when he was stopped.
 
Border Patrol agents Christopher Cantrell and Pedro Hernandez had been watching from behind the gas station. To reach Ouellet's, they had driven over private dirt logging roads through the North Woods of Maine.
 
They stopped Jalbert apparently at random, then spotted the gun between the seats. It was partridge-hunting season in Canada, and Jalbert had a .20-gauge shotgun in hopes of bagging a bird. He didn't get one.
 
He said he was just a hunter. His pregnant wife and 5-year-old daughter were waiting at home, half a mile away in Pohenegamook.
 
But to the agents, he was an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.

 

 

http://injusticebusters.org/2003/Jalbert_Michel.html

 

A Quebec man jailed last year for driving into the United States to buy gasoline - with a shotgun in his trunk - has pleaded guilty to charges in a U.S. court Monday to avoid more jail time.

Earlier this month, lawyers for Michel Jalbert struck a plea bargain with prosecutors that would allow Mr. Jalbert to plead guilty to one charge of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and to be sentenced to time already served.

The charge carries with it a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Under the terms of the deal, other charges faced by Mr. Jalbert would be dropped.

Mr. Jalbert was nabbed by U.S. border guards as he was heading to a family hunting trip and had his shotgun in his truck.

The 33-year-old forestry worker spent 35 days in jail last fall after he bought gas at a border station at the edge of his hometown of Pohénégamook, Que. He and his wife, Chantale Chouinard, have fretted over the prospect of a trial and years in jail.

On Monday morning, Judge George Singal of the U.S. District Court in Bangor, Me., accepted a plea bargain and sentenced Mr. Jalbert to 35 days in jail - time he had already served. Mr. Jalbert was told he was free to return home.

However, Mr. Jalbert may now be barred from entering the United States for life. His lawyer, Jon Haddow, said the judge's sentence means that his client is now considered a felon in the United States.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/1422176/Village-Customs-border-on-the-ridiculous.html

 

To obey the law, villagers must drive to the edge of the woods on the American side, and tell the United States Customs post - in a lay-by with no exit to the United States - that they plan to fill up with petrol.

They then turn round, immediately leaving America, and drive three quarters of a mile through Canada to the junction for the petrol station.

After nipping into America to buy fuel, they must drive back out - there is no road further into the United States - and report to a Canadian customs post 100 yards away.

"If you haven't seen it, you can't understand it. It's an unusual place," said Mr Jalbert, braving -28C weather to offer a guided tour of the village, home to 3,097 people. "All along here, the houses are in Canada, but their garages are in America."

 

 

The mayor's own father-in-law, Edmond Levesque, lives right on top of the border, with one wall of his house and his garden in the United States. Several locals recounted, with outrage, that Agent Cantrell had decreed Mr Levesque could not enter his garden after his post closed at 2pm.

The garden ban offered an unexpected legal test, as a large snow drift blocked Mr Levesque's Canadian front door. A path led, temptingly, to his back door, four feet inside the United States.

A drive up the road to the United States Customs post appeared inevitable, followed by a trip to the Canadian customs office. But the Canadian customs officer was ill. A sign in his window read "Closed - to avoid penalties report to Clair". The border post at Clair was a 90-mile round-trip away, in the next door province of New Brunswick.

 

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