Lost Again

My initial article on Michigan‘s Lost Peninsula was pretty lame, but then again, it was only the second time I’d ever posted on the Twelve Mile Circle and the site has evolved considerably since then. Now, thanks to loyal reader Jim C., I get a rare opportunity for a bit of a do-over. Jim has actually visited the Lost Peninsula in person and was kind enough to allow me to share some of the photographs he collected.

Those who are unfamiliar with the geo-oddity found on the Lost Peninsula can learn the basic facts at the original article. Briefly, it’s a tiny corner of Michigan jutting into Lake Erie that was clipped from the rest of the state in 1836 when Michigan and Ohio resolved their dispute over the Toledo Strip.

Much like the autobiography of a particularly shallow celebrity, I’m not really the "author" of this entry today. Sure, I’m wrapping a few words around it, making it look pretty and posting it under my name, but really Jim C. has provided the meat. He’s the guiding hand behind the scenes who deserves the lion’s share of the credit. Thanks Jim!

There’s not much on the Lost Peninsula except a marina and a few houses. I noticed that there’s also at least one restaurant here too. I’d love to eat there. It wouldn’t even matter if they had great food. I’ve been fixated on restaurants coinciding with strange geography lately for no particular reason.

Jim was thoughtful enough to even find the boundary marker in Google Street View.

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Now let’s look at a few of his photographs for a better view.

This is the side of the stone that marks the line between the two states. A plaque has been attached to its base inscribed with a quote from Robert Frost’s famous poem, Mending Wall: “Good fences make good neighbors.”

If a traveler from some other area of Michigan visited the Lost Peninsula, this is the side of the stone she would see first unless she came by boat. Here, Ohio ends and the Lost Peninsula begins.

Then she would see this side of the marker once she safely arrived upon Michigan soil on the Lost Peninsula.

Welcome Frommer’s Visitors

Also a shout out to visitors arriving from Arthur Frommer’s blog, which featured my ferry page on December 4, 2009 (yesterday as I type this). Mr. Frommer says "you’ll agree that the site is well worth recording in your list of travel aids." Wow! — nice words indeed for something I designed primarily as an outlet for my rampant perfectionism. I hope some of you new visitors subscribe to the rss feed and stick around for awhile. For long-time readers, here’s a link to the Frommer’s blog post if you want to see what all the fuss is about: An Oddly-Named Website Provides Absolutely Vital Information on Ferry Services Around the World.

The Northwest Angle

I can’t believe I haven’t discussed the Northwest Angle yet, perhaps the most famous and renowned national border anomaly in North America. Way back when I started Twelve Mile Circle I featured Michigan’s Lost Peninsula and I’ve long had a fansite devoted to my visit to Point Roberts, Washington, but somehow the Northwest Angle fell through the cracks until today.

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The Northwest Angle is the northernmost point in Minnesota and in the "lower 48" states as well. One would have to travel all the way to Alaska to find another spot in the United States north of the 49th parallel.

It is also an exclave, a parcel of land belonging to the United States but not physically contiguous with the rest of the country. Visitors can fly to it by float plane or ski plane depending on the season, or they can cruise across Lake of the Woods by boat, but the only access by land goes through Canada.

Many decades passed between the time when explorers of European descent first traversed the great interior of the continent until surveyors could map it accurately. Geographers and diplomats made their best guesses based on limited information passed along by adventurers and trappers. At the conclusion of the American Revolution, the Treaty of Paris of 1783 established a boundary between British territory and the new United States. It extended a line through Lake of the Woods to its northwest corner, and then straight west to the Mississippi River.

… thence through the middle of said Long Lake and the water communication between it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence through the said lake to the most northwesternmost point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river Mississippi…

But that was impossible! Unbeknownst to experts at the time, the Mississippi River didn’t extend that far north. A subsequent agreement corrected the error by placing a border along the 49th parallel, leaving that little notch on Lake of the Woods to stand out on its own.

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There are also a couple of other exclaves along Lake of the Woods. Elm Point and Buffalo Point are much smaller than the Northwest Angle but they came into existence through the same set of historical facts.

People do live within the exclaves and their neighboring islands. The 2000 United States census recorded 152 inhabitants, with 118 in the exclaves and 34 on the islands.