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So let’s say you want to sneak into the US, or, maybe, out of the US, but let’s
also say that you don’t want to break any laws since you’re looking to become Mayor
and then Senator and then President and then turn the US into your own little fiefdom where
hand dryers are banned, upside-down toilet paper is illegal, and slow walkers are jailed,
and since having a record is bad for politics, law abidance is a must.
For that, here are a bunch of places where you can legally cross the border between Canada
and the US with no passport, no customs, and no immigration.
Starting at the eastern end of the US/Canada border, the first legal sneaking site is many
miles north near Presque Isle, Maine, which, as it turns out, is neither an isle or very
presque to anything.
Now, this golf club, except for its parking lot, is all located just over the border in
Canada.
This position was quite precisely picked as it was originally established during America’s
prohibition era and this way, American members could go to the clubhouse, which was in Canada,
and legally get their sesh on.
Nowadays, because of this, 18-year-olds can get tipsy before tee-time, but it also creates
problems as the border is now more rigidly enforced.
You see, the only road to the club is just over the border in the US and there is not,
of course, a border crossing checkpoint in their parking lot.
Since there is no way out of the club except through America, Americans are therefore allowed
to just park in the lot, walk over into Canada to play a round of golf, and then walk back
into America.
For Canadians, however, it’s a little more complicated.
The Canadian who lives here, for example, has to drive all the way down to the next
border crossing and then back up to get to the course.
In the summer, however, there’s a temporary Canadian border crossing here allowing people
to pass back into Canada via the most direct route, although, since there’s no corresponding
American station, they still have to take the detour to get to the club.
Moving on, though, way up north there’s the town of Estcourt, Maine/Quebec.
This town is pretty well bisected by the border which leads to a lot of oddities.
For example, there’s this gas station in the US which is quite popular given the lower
cost of top quality American gasoline—lovingly freed from oppression by the American military.
To legally get to this gas, though, from the Canadian side, you’re expected to drive
down to here, the nearest American border crossing, go through customs and immigration,
drive back through Canada to the gas station, fuel up, then drive back through Canada to
the Canadian station and check back into Canada.
Elsewhere in the town, though, there are these houses—cleanly split in two by the border.
This has some advantages.
Parents can rank their kids and decide whether they get the Canadian or American bedroom.
That way the good kid will get a low-cost, high-quality university education, and the
bad kid will get drafted to fight in the great US Executive Branch - NOAA Civil War of 2020.
To evade complications, though, the policy with these houses are that, since the only
road to get to them is Canadian, they can live how they like to on their property and
then, if they were to go to a part of the US that was not their backyard, they would
have to check in at the nearest US border station.
Way, way west of there is the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation.
Thanks to an 18th century treaty, there are no restrictions on crossing the border within
it.
For example, there’s this town which is split in two by the border, however there
are absolutely no border controls.
In that case the town in conveniently on a peninsula, however, the situation is even
stranger a bit down the line at Cornwall Island.
You see, the station to enter Canada used to be here, on the island, however, in 2009,
the reservation’s government put up a fight against the Canadian border agents desire
to be armed at their post like their American counterparts, and so it was moved to here,
on the mainland, even though Canadian territory starts here.
Therefore, coming from the US, you can drive onto this island, walk around, shop, and do
whatever you want in Canada without having officially entered it immigration-wise.
Legally, though, what you’re then supposed to do if you want to re-enter the US is drive
north through the Canadian border station, turn back around, cross Cornwall Island again,
and go through the US border station.
Apparently, if you don’t and they catch you, you’ll get a hefty $5,000 fine, but
this also means that to go to either the US or Canada, the residents of Cornwall Island
have to go through a border checkpoint.
Way, way, way down the line in North Dakota and Manitoba is the International Peace Garden
where crossing the border is not only tolerated, but encouraged.
Crossing there is so easy—it’s like a walk in the park.
Built as a symbol of the peaceful relationship between the countries, this symmetrical garden
is cleanly bisected by the border and when strolling though you can cross it as much
as you want.
Even further west is a similar story at the Peace Arch, which is located at the main border
crossing for those driving between Seattle and Vancouver.
This is also an international park meaning anyone from either side is allowed to get
out and cross the border as much as they want.
This is most influential not actually at the arch itself, but just to its east where there’s
a large field and playground.
For the Canadians living in this neighborhood, this is a popular dog and kid-walking spot
and, because of these unique regulations, they’re able to turn their walk international
without any immigration requirements, as long as they go back to Canada once the deed is
done.
In conclusion, the rules at all these places is kinda like the rules with murder.
You could physically murder someone, nothing’s stopping you, but it’s still illegal.
You could also physically cross the border and not go back in these places, but it’s
still illegal.
In these places, they just happens to use the honor system—not for murder, that is,
but border crossing.
You see, what they probably did was figure out the probability of someone illegally crossing
in these spots, the cost it would take to secure the border, and figured that cost wasn’t
worth it.
Of course, to do that they probably needed a solid understanding of probability.
To learn that, they might have used Brilliant.
In my opinion, Brilliant’s probability courses are probably some of the highest fun to learning
ratio activities you can do.
It really just seems like you’re doing puzzle upon puzzle, but it turns out that they actually
sneakily taught you a thing along the way.
This is kind of the point of Brilliant—you learn complex topics in a simple manner, and
all their courses do a fantastic job of this.
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