How This Northern Minnesota Town is Controlled By Canada

Because of an error, one small Minnesota town is left stranded in Canada, and that really became a problem during the pandemic.

Angle Inlet, Minnesota has a population of about 120 people, and the only way to get to this Minnesota town is through Canada, so that means constant trips through Customs and Border Control, and that process became nearly impossible when the pandemic was raging and borders were closed or very restricted.

Residents decided enough was enough and paid to have an ice road plowed when the lakes were frozen, allowing hassle-free travel to the rest of the United States, this allowed them to still keep their main economy of fishing tourism afloat, but some residents are calling for long term change in the border policy to allow for more freedom of travel.

Get our free mobile app

This video from the Youtube channel 'Off the Cuff' took a trip to the Northwest Angle to talk to some people that have to deal with this headache on a daily basis, one of the proposals to fix this travel problem is making a special travel corridor for the residents of Angle Inlet and allowing them to breeze through the border, one of the residents asks to be treated just like a train, apparently, Canadian trains can past through the border into Minnesota and back into Canada without being checked.

The video does a great job of breaking down how this even happened, it all boils down to poor maps and treaties that were written according to those maps, so when the 1783 Treaty of Paris said that the United States border would be located "...through the Lake of the Woods to the northwesternmost point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi...", the Northwest Angle turned out to be that "northwesternmost point."

One of the problems and strange quirks about all of this is that when the Lake of The Woods is water and as long as you stay on that water, you can travel well into Canada with no problems, but when the lakes freeze, that ice is considered land by both governments and you better not be caught on the wrong side of the border, this could lead to some serious legal issues, so residents are very careful about that.

It's a good watch, even though the people in the video were ill-prepared for Minnesota winters, guys, no 4x4 truck to drive on an ice road in the northernmost part of the United States?