History Question – NW Angle

I was just looking at the MN map, and while the bump along the northern border is ingrained in all of our heads from grade-school geography class…I’ve never heard the story of why that bump exists. Seems like it would’ve been easy to just keep going across whatever parallel most of the northern MN border follows…but instead they put the bump in…which gave us that island of land (which technically qualifies as non-contiguous US territory I guess), the NW angle.

Anybody know how or why that happened…I guess I could “google” it and find out…just seemed like an interesting topic.

JP

From what I understand, it was from the language of a treaty with Britain saying that the line would run ‘to the northwest most point’ of LOW, which when the line is drawn, includes the Angle.

A quick run to the Wikipedia confirms this

More…..

The Northwest Angle, known simply as the Angle by locals, and coextensive with Angle Township, is a part of northern Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota, and is the only place in the United States outside Alaska (and a mis-surveyed strip of land in Washington State) that is north of the 49th parallel. That parallel is the northern boundary of the 48 contiguous states extending from the west coast along the northern boundaries of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and part of Minnesota to the Northwest Angle. The Angle is one of only four non-island locations in the 48 contiguous states not directly connected to them by land within the country, the others being nearby Elm Point, Minnesota; Point Roberts, Washington; and the town of Alburgh, Vermont. All four are located along the US-Canada border.

Farther east, U.S. territory does not extend as far north as the 49th parallel. Map projections sometimes create a superficial appearance that Maine extends farther north than that; that appearance does not occur in maps in which parallels of latitude are straight lines.

A portion (70%)[1] of the Angle is held in trust by the Red Lake Indian Reservation (Ojibwa).

Although the Angle is listed as one of several distinct regions of Minnesota, its total population was only 152 at the 2000 census.

Northwest Angle Origin
The Northwest Angle was partitioned by the Treaty of Paris which divided U.S. territory and British territory. The treaty set the boundary to the north to run “through the Lake of the Woods to the northwestern most point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi.” This boundary was set based on the Mitchell Map, a map that had several inaccuracies, including showing the Mississippi River extending too far north. The Treaty of 1818 determined that the boundary would be drawn instead from “a line drawn from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, [due south, then] along the 49th parallel of north latitude.” This treaty created the Northwest Angle. The Northwest Angle is known to locals as “The Angle.”

Jack

Not related to the “Angle”, but isn’t Kettle Falls the only place in America where you can look south into Canada WKW

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Not related to the “Angle”, but isn’t Kettle Falls the only place in America where you can look south into Canada WKW

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Detroit is due north of Windsor Canada….so I would say no. There are likely many more places too.

Kettle Falls Hotel –

Per Rick Oveson – “Yes, this is the only place in the USA that you can look south into Canada”.

Good fishing, too.

Dog

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Not related to the “Angle”, but isn’t Kettle Falls the only place in America where you can look south into Canada WKW

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Detroit is due north of Windsor Canada….so I would say no. There are likely many more places too.

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They have excellent “dancing” in Windsor!!!!!!

Dog

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Not related to the “Angle”, but isn’t Kettle Falls the only place in America where you can look south into Canada WKW

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Detroit is due north of Windsor Canada….so I would say no. There are likely many more places too.

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Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within the Essex, Ontario Census division, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor is located south of Detroit, Michigan in the United States. Windsor is known as The City of Roses and residents are known as Windsorites

For your “Canada – USA Bucket List”

Land exclaves of the United States contiguous with CanadaAlaska (separated from the rest of the United States by the Pacific Ocean)
Point Roberts, Washington (separated by Boundary Bay)
Northwest Angle, Minnesota (separated by Lake of the Woods)
Elm Point, Minnesota (separated by Lake of the Woods)
Alburgh (town), Vermont (separated by Lake Champlain)
Province Point, Vermont (separated by Lake Champlain)

I looked at the satellite view of Elm Point on google maps and there appears to be one or two lonely american residents out there…complete with junk cars and boat trailers strewn about.

Or it could just be another meth lab. link

jp