My eyes travel to the top of the boulder. You can say hello to someone and they will drop their head and act as if you are not even there. Moonrise on First Connecticut Lake, near the New Hampshire/Quebec border. The sun is hot, the sky blue. All streets slope down to the sea. Picnic tables edge the water. Now, a long list of things, from illegal aliens to biological weapons, justifies these huge stations and all these agents of the law. Yet they don’t seem to take any measures to find something like that. After 9/11 our government overreacted as they usually do and brought fear and uncertainty instead of calm and thoughtful actions to deal with the tragedy of 9/11. Anything that’s better, one side or the other, people find a way to pass it over the border,” he says. Beside the table is a big boulder with trees growing on it, roots twining, searching the rock for nourishment. It is such a sad commentary on our society in general that we now fear everything and everyone. I had an uncle once who used to store margarine in his barn and then shoot it over the border. It seems fair to say that no building project of this scale has ever before taken place anywhere near these woods. These two bounds are near the point where Route 3 crosses from Pittsburg, New Hampshire, into Chartierville, Quebec, and are about as far north as you … Or so it’s said. “I’ve lived here 11 years and I’ve never seen him.”, The next day, I visit Fernando Beltran, Patrol Agent in Charge at the Newport border station, about 7 miles from Holland. He waves across the parking lot, and I go over. There are three streams that flow into the upper Connecticut from the northwest, but, in 1783, no one knew for sure which of the three reached farthest in that direction. I drive down one road and come to a farm on a high rise, with open fields all around and a view of the town center and the hills beyond. In Calais, Maine, about 30 miles farther south, I cross over to the larger city of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, a place that was popular for a while with busloads of American seniors, who found they could buy prescription drugs more cheaply in Canada. Senators from Maine and New Hampshire want the federal government to reevaluate the restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Canada during the coronavirus pandemic. The dragnets I encountered in this region have caught some drug traffickers and illegal aliens, but no terrorists thus far, and it seems unlikely that they’ll catch any but the most ill-informed. It’s a border that will never be contained. Although New Hampshire shares a 58 mile (93 kilometer) border with the Province of Quebec, the only Canadian border crossing is located at the northern end of the No roads follow the neat borderline between New England and Canada that you see on the map. Even today, French is the second most widely spoken language in New Hampshire, with 16.17 percent of Coös County residents using it at home. The Connecticut River forms its border with Vermont to the west. Instead he talks about himself. From where I sit on the deck of that restaurant, I see two men loading their lobster boat, using a small crane attached to the end of the wharf. Completion within the state followed a year later. “Well,” he replies, “these are international waters, so it gets kind of messy. My hunting blind was only one of hundreds hugging the Canadian side of the tree-shorn vista. I apologized and asked if the man and woman walking toward me from the Canadian side, with bottles of Labatt in hand, happened to speak English. Regional Maps: Map of North America Neither the United Kingdom nor the United States seemed terribly concerned with the details of this section of the border — there were so few people living here. I replied with a pitiful attempt to convince him in his language that, “Ma Francais is tree petite and tres mal.” (Sorry, best I could do!) Five or six more easy miles past houses with people out visiting and planting their gardens brought me to the Connecticut River and Beecher Falls, VT, the end of my journey. Prohibition was repealed largely owing to the realization that its enforcement had fostered a profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol. My Mom was born on a farm in P.E.I. The footbridge, known locally as “Tobacco Road,” has been of interest for years. In darkness, their red navigation lights disappear into the night as they burble away from the wharf. As I leave, I pull over to the side of the road. The waters are patrolled.”. André points out that his T-shirt came from a tractor dealership in Keene. “No,” he replies, “that would create an international problem.” It would be easier to move him. The Pittsburg border station, the only one in New Hampshire, is a quiet respite between the busy stations of Vermont and Maine. The tip end of the lake is surrounded by the city of Newport, Vermont, a busy little community with a surprising number of banks. But it is winter no more, and it is not neighborly to close a trail.” With that, he unhitched the rope and opened the passage. The reassuring thing about navigating down from a watershed is that gravity never lies. However, many also arrived from Vermont and a few from nearby parts of Canada, which, unlike today, were mostly inhabited by English speakers with strong ties to New England. Between 1843 and 1847, an official survey was conducted, then renewed in 1908, using up-to-date geodetic methods, by the newly created International Boundary Commission. So, unlike in most places in New Hampshire, I wouldn’t be able to count on easy access to good water. The sign instructs anyone who’s coming in from Quebec to call the customs agent from this phone. In the 1970s, Gerald Bull, a Canadian aerospace engineer, developed howitzers and “supergun” technologies for foreign governments, using a tunnel beneath the Vermont/Quebec border to test his weapons. I wait with the windows down for about half an hour. Following the stream, I was walking in the past, as it were, with no way of knowing at any given moment whether I was in Canada or the United States. But once the new regulations took hold, his situation was no longer quaint. Inside, the office has a desk and a chair but nothing to indicate that anyone ever sits here. “Or at least they always used to. He emerges, triumphant, with a big, fresh lemon I’ve brought with me from home. Not only did they birth each other’s babies, but police and fire departments worked jointly, and familiar faces were routinely waved through the border checks. Both the U.S. and Canadian governments helped Bull set up his company, known as Space Research Corporation. The Birth of a (Tiny) Nation: The Indian Stream Republic. I’m told that, in the fall, hunters set out barrels of fruit. Maybe I don’t look like the type who would bring in anything more offensive than a fresh lemon. I felt as though I were looking on a great city. “Used to be,” he says. There are a number of roads around the world with stretches where geography tricks the eye and can create the sensation that your car is being drawn uphill by magnetic force. Albert was born in Quebec, grew up in Madawaska, and now lives in Fort Kent. In earlier times, this would have meant that the international boundary itself had moved. Isn’t it sad? Pittsburg contains the only part of New Hampshire west of the Connecticut River, as that river defines the Vermont state line from Clarksville southward. We went where the work was–Minnesota, wherever.”, I express surprise that someone with such a background would join the Border Patrol. I was completely convinced and immediately inquired in flawless and professional English, “How may I help you?” Oh for the day when people are just people. I’ve known about the $24 million station the government is building here, two massive structures rising out of the earth. Input a postcode or geographical location, and MapIt returns the relevant constituency or authority. The province fanned westward from Portsmouth, with settlement basically ending in the Merrimack Valley. “There’s been smuggling across this river ever since there’ve been two countries,” he tells me. When the French crown was driven from North America after the Seven Years’ War, the need to preserve a no man’s land vanished. He tells me that the United States has spent a million dollars putting up these devices in this speck of a place. And to Andy Grossman: Yep; I made the mistake of asking an Ontario Provincial police officer stationed in Coaticook (in English) if he spoke English, because I knew my French was too limited to ask for the information that I needed. The questions agents ask me at the crossings don’t seem uniform. It is the only crossing on the Canada–United States border in the state of New Hampshire, and serves about 10,000 vehicles a year. For years, the border between Maine and New Brunswick was in dispute, a tug of war between Great Britain and the United States. “I’m the only American up here,” he says. I cooked some dinner and admired the dusky view along the hills of Quebec and western Maine. It is just so sad that our cultures have to clash in ways that most of us would rather not see happen. East of Derby Line, the town of Holland, Vermont (population 588), is a wide plain of farms and fields, stretching as far as I can see. When I reached McAdam, I see a sign for a picnic table. As I drive across the border, I notice that someone has planted a beautiful flower garden in a circle around the international marker. A beaver swimming near the shore dove for cover when I popped out of the woods to dip my bottles in the pond. I had no choice but to walk until it got dark and cool. He tells me to go up to the very top of Shattuck Hill and take a picture of the view. I imagine how easy that could be. Then I turned west toward Vermont. Some eat supper in Canada and watch TV in the States. I decided to drink what I had and refill here. The one thing I can’t find is a rule of thumb in their questioning. With his finger on a map, he patiently traces the migration of these pioneers who came to what is now Nova Scotia from France in the 1600s and then were deported by the British in 1755. The only way out was through the backwoods, rough roads all the way down to Allagash. The traffic coming through is light. It’s a long way over dirt roads, but once I’m on the path, I follow it to the end, which turns out to be a big, broad lake called Spednic. I would be following the divide between two massive drainages for the next two days. A line of black tape runs diagonally across the reading room and through the rest of the building, too, a comical reminder of Mrs. Haskell’s charitable embrace of the two cultures. After leaving the worst of the swamp from which it rises, Halls Stream is still hedged in tightly by forest. Annoyed by the conflict, the settlers declared allegiance to neither country. It’s 350 feet deep and harbors not only the legend of a monster named Memphre but smuggling lore galore, including caves where contraband was hidden. In that context, I ask the ladies whether these crimes today are much different from whiskey running. “When I went to bed at night, my head would pound,” he remembers. Not far from Fourth Connecticut Lake, I heard someone shout through the woods, “Bonjour!” So I shouted back the same, only to be inundated with a torrent of French. I climbed into one the next morning for a better look and found mousetraps, cooking utensils and two trim stacks of leisure reading — hunting magazines and pornography. Please be aware that these roads are heavily traveled and speeds often exceed 55 miles per hour. Since 9/11, they’re all blockaded. I ask the town clerk, Diane Judd, whether there’s a crossing in Holland. I have a great deal of affection for my old route; I feel at home when reaching Derby Line. He gets so he’s used to it.”, Most of the border crossings in Maine are on the state’s eastern edge, between New Brunswick and Aroostook County, a place where “potatoes, pine and people” are touted as the biggest resources. Dubay likes a good French-inspired meal, which he finds more to his taste across the river. Here, in many ways, the two countries acted as one. No cars, no trucks, nothing. I have to stand in the middle of the road to do it, since I’m not allowed to take photos standing on government property. I understand. Falton adds that she wishes she could still hire Canadians to work for her, because she’s closer to Quebec than to Pittsburg. It consisted of three distinct departments–representative, executive, and judicial. Finally there was the matter of the Quebec sovereignty movement, and the “francisation” program that preceded it — linguistically separating Quebec from “the other”. The thirteen American states found along the Canada-US border, from west to east, are Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. One, they tell me, is “a good-looking man, lives in a beautiful home, has a nice wife and kids. As both companies were based in New Hampshire, most of the settlers came from there. The Laflammes speak good English with French-Canadian accents and have strong cross-border ties. For nearly all of its century-and-a-half colonial history, much of what we call New Hampshire today was practically a political no man’s land. EastportMaine was settled in 1780, incorporated in 1798. This is only my opinion,but to me the worst tragedy since 9/11 is how society in general has changed. He doesn’t want me to use his name, but he tells me about trucks that come up this road sometimes, usually at night, and at the gate they meet other trucks, from Canada. “We know you’re there.”, Dressed in what looks like military fatigues, Beltran is charming, welcoming, easy to talk to. “I was born in Oregon. “I really shouldn’t tell you this,” he said, “but if you get into trouble out there, drop off into Canada. He asks for my passport and tells me to open my trunk, which holds my suitcase, laptop, briefcase, and picnic hamper. A small white obelisk–an International Boundary marker! In theory, the United States and Great Britain agreed about where the international border lay. They did. Only a mile or two of walking brought me to a gate, where the forest opened into farmland and there were views across the intervale to the Quebec village of East Hereford, whose namesake mountain rises behind it. The dispute was tentatively resolved in 1835, making the area part of New Hampshire, and then definitively by federal treaty in 1842. The article about the New England – Canada border only magnifies how the society that we live in has drastically changed. See also YANKEE CLASSIC, January 1984: US/Canadian Border Crossings. Cameras and sensors bristle up the telephone pole and on the gate, he tells me: “A big animal can’t cross the line without them knowing it.” Helicopters hover at least once a day, and agents park out in his field. When revolt came to New England 12 years later, the Province of Quebec decided against joining the thirteen colonies, and it became imperative to define the border unequivocally. “It’s a good thing Mr. Trump hasn’t set his heart on a wall here,” I think as I yank my leg from a slimy mudhole that collapses with a sucking sound as quickly as it formed, nearly taking my boot with it. Sort of. It was reported that the swimmers were bringing 60 pounds on their backs at once. Senators Want Travel Restrictions Reevaluated at US-Canada Border The senators from Maine and New Hampshire say the restrictions "put an immense strain on the communities that straddle the border" When I turn around, I see a Canadian customs agent gesturing furiously at me. Berlin even boasts its own dialect of Canadian French. The Eastern Townships were settled predominantly by Loyalists from what is now Vermont, French-Canadian families have been part of the fabric of North Country life since the beginning, and, today, much of the timber harvested in New Hampshire and Maine ends up in nearby Canadian mills. We surge through that line, wherever it is, as the barge-like ferry, pushed by a tugboat, delivers me and half a dozen other cars and passengers from Canada to a rough little landing on the far side of Eastport. “My story isn’t unique,” he says. Fernando Beltran is leaning on a Vermont State Police cruiser, talking with a female trooper. As it started to get dark, the flies gave no sign of letting up. As the adage would go, this kind of bureaucratic red tape never stops those who want to engage in illegal activity. It is indeed a fortress, with winged roof and huge letters spelling out United States of America, which seems like an announcement to the moose who might wander by. All photos/art by Edie Clark. I have gone different places and someone will go ahead of you through a door and not hold it for you. They were potato farmers, and all around us, potato fields are blooming with the soft white blossoms that in this part of the world spell money. Route 3 climbs gradually from Pittsburg to this outpost, then the road drops sharply in a long, perfectly straight line to the village of Chartierville. Put your car in neutral, take your foot off the brake and feel gravity “reverse” as it begins to roll uphill, back towards the US. The main byway up into Quebec is called, locally, “Smugglers’ Road,” and some of these ornate homes were built from the riches reaped by transporting whiskey and other commodities during Prohibition. They even issued their own currency. At noon, I made the long descent to New Hampshire’s only border crossing. Here Morley climbs Prospect Hill, a high point not far from where Route 3 crosses into Canada. I try to remember to tell guests to bring their passports.” Currently, travelers may present a birth certificate and government-issued photo ID at border crossings, but come June 1 this year, the new passport requirement (either book or card format) will go into effect. For years he has walked down his driveway, across a footbridge to the Canadian town’s main street, done his shopping or gone to church, and returned home. The cement slab is still there in front of the door, but grass grows to its edge now, and wicker chairs have been set out under the porch. During the French and Indian Wars, adventurous French and English colonists and their native allies raided the outer settlements on the respective enemy sides, taking prisoners back to their homes closer to Boston or Montreal (and unwittingly nourishing the evolution of the captivity narrative as a distinctive literary genre). Your article was both interesting and sad. Come, explore Pittsburg and ride New England's best snowmobile trails! Click here for more of Edie Clark's Canadian border photos. On a topic unrelated to the story, I can’t imagine living in such a remote area. You’ll find help a lot sooner.”. I tell him I’m writing about the border. It snakes up and down over steep, ledged terrain and is often overgrown with thick brush and briar patches, making the traveling a kind of light-duty bushwhacking. The problem was what it didn’t say. Even with all this increased security, are we really any safer? Almost every border patrol agent I’ll speak with will feel the need to differentiate himself from the customs agents who check people at ports of entry. “Our information was that they had been doing it on a fairly regular basis,” explains Mark Albert (pronounced “al-bare“), Border Patrol Agent in Charge at the Van Buren station, a facility so new that on the day of my visit, workmen are just setting shrubs into the bare earth outside the entry. “We unfortunately didn’t make those apprehensions.”. A lemon can improve a lot of things. I carry my lunch to a table. Until 9/11, this was a quaint curiosity, and reporters would occasionally find their way to Dumond’s humble abode to talk about his life in a town divided by the International Boundary. The one thing that I take comfort in knowing is that in time,goodness always triumphs over evil. A burly fellow is emptying the trash. The stern spruce and fir gave way to the luscious broad leaves of hardwoods. I get up from the table and walk to the water’s edge, crossing pleasurably from Canada into America, no passport required. “And they’ve smuggled everything you can think of–liquor, cows, you name it. On the map, you can see all the roads in this region that once passed back and forth into Canada. I’d informed both the Border Patrol and CBP that I would be walking the line. This map can load slowly so be patient. He doesn’t bother with my luggage, but burrows deep into the hamper. Owner Betty Falton, now in her eighties, sits, registering guests, at her big wooden desk, a set of moose horns screwed to the log wall beside her. The boundary, visible in places, is open at times and sometimes scribes through water–not only Memphremegog but also Lake Champlain and Wallace Pond and a few small waterways. In Derby Line, Vermont (population 792), the houses along Main Street are grand examples of Gilded Age style. The Abenaki lived semi-nomadically in the remote and mountainous country in between. According to the local newspaper, the police had been watching these men since the early ’90s. We can’t be wrong once.”, I mention the feeling of annoyance among some Vermonters who aren’t used to being interrogated so closely. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 6,123. How could I get groceries?” he says. Wary of anarchy, the settlers of the contested territory took matters into their own hands and, in 1832, drafted a constitution for the sovereign Republic of Indian Stream. On the northern border, it would never be feasible to build fences like those the government is erecting on the southern border. Albert’s territory covers 162 miles of the border, from Van Buren, Maine, to St-Pamphile, Quebec, on the western edge. I didn’t need the cameras of 60 Minutes to wonder what might be inside that tractor trailer or tucked under the seats of that enormous RV. From there I took a compass bearing, “north 2 degrees west,” in the language of a royal decree of 1739 defining the border between Maine (then Massachusetts) and New Hampshire, until I hit the 20-foot wide swath of cleared trees that marks the international boundary, the northernmost point in the state. Some of the things Edie Clark encountered highlight the mystery . This was a very thought provoking article. Several houses on his street are split down the middle. My first relations with the Border Patrol, as a kid … We’d be out there in the field and you’d see an airplane coming and then you’d see cars coming.”, Because all agents are required to serve five years on the southern boundary before they transfer north, I meet many agents like Beltran who have come to Vermont from the U.S./Mexican border. Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. I ask where I might find the harbormaster. Colonial settlers of Vermont generally came from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Several agents are milling about inside, and one comes out. I watch the big logging trucks pass through the ports of entry without much more than a glance at their documents from the customs agents, and I think about what could be concealed in a hollowed-out log. Before setting off on my walk along this lonely line through the woods, I had a short conversation with a Border Patrol agent. Behind the house is the telltale obelisk–the boundary marker. On the day I visit last July, there’s a yard sale at one of these homes just off the town green. Thank you for an intriguing story. Now,it is more of a ‘me first’ attitude on the part of many people.