Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
At a curious angle
LAKE OF THE WOODS, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CANADA, 1872-1876
The international boundary separating Canada and the United States of America is the
world's longest border shared between a pair of countries. The fact that much of the boundary
follows the line of latitude 49°N has given rise to the use of 'the 49th parallel' as a metaphor
when discussing differences between the two nations. The status of this arbitrary line dates
from the London Convention of 1818, which established it as the boundary from the Lake
of the Woods in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. This portion of the border re-
mained undefined on the ground until the British and Americans carried out a joint survey to
delimit it between 1872 and 1876.
Drawing a boundary line on a map is relatively easy, even if persuading people to agree to
it is not. Transforming that line into a physical presence is an altogether different challenge.
This particular boundary is not in fact quite as straight as it was intended to be, or as it ap-
pears on this map. The survey party cleared a strip of land 20 feet wide and built hundreds
of boundary stones along it to mark the border. The tools available to the men engaged in
the hard physical labour of cutting a swathe through the forest and setting the stones in place
did not allow for precise measurement. Thus, rather than following the parallel exactly, the
physical border meanders gently back and forth on its 800-mile path from east to west.
This map, which was made for the Boundary Commissioners in about 1874, illustrates a
rather more significant anomaly in the border. The map covers the section of the boundary
east of the Red River. On its right-hand side is a wedge-shaped area on the western shore of
