Point Roberts, Washington—: the Problem of an American Exclave

POINT ROBERTS, WASHINGTON—THE PROBLEM OF AN AMERICAN EXCLAVE Julian V. Minghi* University of Washington, Seattle Point Roberts, Washington, although little known, is, as a result of the delineation of the United States-Canadian boundary along the 49th parallel in 1846, a very unusual political-geographic phenomenon. At the tip of a peninsular projection of the Fraser lowlands, Point Roberts' land connections with the United States are through Canadian territory. Physical connections by water, although entirely within United States' sovereignty, are unimportant , as in the absence of adequate moorage facilities on the Point, this mode of transportation is hardly ever used. Where the only convenient approach is through the territory of another country the term "pene-exclave" has been coined to describe the situation.1 Occupying 4.1 square miles, Point Roberts is administered as a township in Whatcom County, but because it is only ten miles south of the Fraser River it has been affected by the presence and overflow of metropolitan Vancouver. For the first half-century the Point remained conveniently a military reserve , but when settlers arrived in the 1890's its military status was soon lost. By the 1930's some of the richer Canadians from Vancouver had built summer homes near its beaches, and after the war this trend continued. The completion of the Deas Island road tunnel under the Fraser Delta in 1959 intensified still further the Point's growing economic link with Canada. By replacing a ferry and secondary road connection, the new tunnel and associated thruway have improved the access of the whole lower Delta area to Vancouver, bringing Point Roberts within almost a half hour's drive of downtown, and consequently well within commuting distance of a major Canadian urban center, yet it remains almost an hour's drive from the nearest United States mainland point on the other side of Boundary Bay (Fig. 1.) A telling measure of growing Canadian economic dominance is the fact that Canadian property owners now outnumber American by over five to one. For the 240 American permanent residents, the physical separation of this pene-exclave from its national territory is of basic importance. The abnormally high cost, both to the residents for personal services and to American administrative agencies for public services, results from the crucial time-distance factor separating supply and demand, and also from the fact that the potential market area in the intervening Canadian zone can in no * Now University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn. The field work associated with this paper was carried out in the summer of 1959 while the author was employed as a planning assistant with Whatcom County, Washington. 1 G. S. S. Robinson, "Exclaves," Annals of the Association of American Geographers , IL (September, 1959), p. 283. 29 way defray the cost because American goods and services move through this empty economic space without picking up or unloading part-freights. In a sense this empty space may be compared with the Laurentian Shield which has a similar effect on Canadian east-west transportation costs. The consequent lack of adequate public services, and the inflated prices of retail goods and services detrimentally affect both American and Canadian inhabitants on the Point. A notable example can be found in the extraordinarily long and costly daily journey to Blaine, Washington, for the resident children whose parents insist on an American education. The economic inconveniences of non-contiguity are somewhat offset by the advantages resulting from the uniqueness of the political milieu. The difference in liquor laws between Washington and British Columbia offers the people from north of the 49th parallel (now referred to as the attic) a two hour extension of drinking time on the Point. The nocturnal southward migration produces a considerable source of income for the taverns of Point Roberts. Moreover, the boundary serves to give the Point's American citizens a labor monopoly, protected from Canada by the United States' immigration restrictions, and from the United States' mainland by the prohibitive cost of distance. At the same time, the proximity of, and easy access to the growing Vancouver metropolis have combined with the Point's own advantages of a sunny scenic setting with safe and unpolluted beaches, to revolutionize...