US-Canada Boundary

[ArtMan]

As for Canada, Finding the Border Is a Bit of a Trick

With Weeds to Be Whacked And Markers to Be Found, It's a 5,525-Mile Problem

By BARRY NEWMAN

Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2007; Page A1

 

BEEBE PLAIN, Vt. -- Kyle Hipsley, a chain-smoking 52-year-old Iowan, has spent 20 summers looking for America. More often than not, he has trouble finding it.

 

"The boundary's in those bushes," Mr. Hipsley said one morning, driving his rented Dodge along a line of scrub just to the south of the border with Canada. "That's got to be cleared." A mile later, he said, "The boundary's out there in that swamp. Monument's buried in the bog. Been that way for years."

 

Click MORE for full article, including slide show.

 

-ArtMan-

Edited July 10, 2007 by ArtMan

[+Klemmer]

Having grown up almost on the border (Buffalo, NY), and spending every summer living in Canada, I got a big kick out of the article. Thanks!

 

Now here in California, we have a slightly different problem....

[+shorbird]

Thanks for the interesting article. Don't think I'd want to mow the length of the border, but I'll be happy to search for the monuments!

[+Ernmark]

..if I remember correctly, back in the 70's National Geographic did a story on the US-Canada border & there was a photograph of the inside of a bar that straddled the border - w/ the boundary line (marked, of course) running across the pool table!

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I've been a fan of the border in the northeast, and have recovered a fair number of the monuments and triangulation stations, but what I have recovered is a minute fraction of the total.

 

On the streams, there is an unmarked point at every turn of the stream (where the border is a series of straight lines). The numbers are staggering, considering these were surveyed in 1845 and then resurveyed in 1915-1916.

 

I've dedicated a section of my benchmarking maps to the boundary:

US -Canada Boundary (Northeast)

 

Click on one of the names for that section. The "Highlands" has the most points, nearly 3500 in about 175 miles. Some of them are only meters apart.. One for every twist and turn of the line.

 

Note: some of these maps have many, many points, so depending on your connection speed, they may take a littele while to load. (Don't even think of trying it if you don't have broadband!)

 

Here's a little section of the Highlands Boundary: QH0363 "Dutch IBC". "Dutch" is a triangulation station on the boundary which I recovered last summer. To get a feeling for the density of points, click on the box at the top that says "Toggle Nearby Station On/Off". Bam!, you'll get a gazillion little markers along the line. The red ones are line markers (not NGS stations), the green ones are monuments, and the gray ones are triangulation stations. The red ones will probably obliterate the rest.

 

As for "mowing the grass", that's pretty funny. Walking the vista can sometimes involve going up or down cliffs, or can be a veritable bushwhack.

 

"Fun" as we say in the trade. Here's a few pictures:

 

Triangulation Station "Smith" (QH0408)

 

A cliffy section near monument 472 (QH0509).

 

 

And one of my best finds, the 1858 stone marking the north end of the NH-ME border under IBC Monument 475 (QH0502)

 

Edited July 11, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Papa Bear, how many of those boundary marks have you recovered? I love reading your logs with great pictures. You should write a book.

 

Shirley~

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

Papa Bear, how many of those boundary marks have you recovered? I love reading your logs with great pictures. You should write a book.

 

Shirley~

Hmmm ...

I'm supposed to have a way to keep track of these things ...

 

Moving from west to east:

3 FOUNDs in Essex Co. Vermont

8 FOUNDs & 2 DNFs in Coos Co. NH

16 FOUNDs & 5 DNFs in Oxford Co. ME

7 FOUNDs & 1 DNF in Franklin Co. ME

 

36 FOUNDs & 8 DNFs total

 

These are only border monuments or IBC triangulation stations. I have found (and not found) a few "regular" stations in this area (including some state boundary markers). As you can see from the maps and pictures, there are very long travel times and distances involved, and very tough going on the ground.

 

Sorry, no book on the horizon. I'm putting my energy into logs, pictures and maps on my web site. Call it an e-book if you like.

Edited July 11, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC