Point Roberts, Washington


Point Roberts is a pene-exclave of the United States on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula, south of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The area, which had a population of 1,314 at the 2010 census,
is reached by land by traveling through Canada. It is a census-designated place in Whatcom County, Washington with a post office, and a ZIP Code of 98281. Direct sea and air connections with the U.S. are available across Boundary Bay.
Point Roberts was created when the United Kingdom and the United States settled the Pacific Northwest American-Canadian border dispute in the mid-19th century with the Oregon Treaty. Both parties agreed the 49th parallel would delineate both countries' territories, but they overlooked the small area that incorporates Point Roberts. Questions about ceding the territory to the United Kingdom and later to Canada have been raised since its creation but its status has remained unchanged.

History

The first Europeans to see Point Roberts were members of the 1791 expedition of Francisco de Eliza. The maps produced from Eliza's explorations depicted Point Roberts as "Isla de Cepeda" or "Isla de Zepeda." In 1792 the British expedition of George Vancouver and the Spanish expedition of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano encountered one another near Point Roberts. In the morning of June 13, 1792, the two ships under Galiano sailed into Boundary Bay and verified Point Roberts was not an island, which was thus renamed Punta Cepeda. They then sailed around Point Roberts and immediately encountered HMS Chatham, the second ship of Vancouver's expedition. The two parties made contact and agreed to share information and work together in mapping the Strait of Georgia.
Point Roberts acquired its present name from Vancouver, who named it after his friend Henry Roberts, who had originally been given command of the expedition. Point Roberts assumed its present political status in 1846, when the Oregon Treaty extended the 49th parallel as the boundary between U.S. and British territory from the Rocky Mountains to Georgia Strait.
on the western shore of Point Roberts, erected in 1861

Treaty history specific to Point Roberts

After years of joint occupation of the disputed area between Mexican California and Russian America known as the Oregon Country to the Americans, and as the Columbia District to the British, American expansionists like U.S. Senator Edward A. Hannegan of Indiana urged U.S. President James K. Polk to annex the entire Oregon Country up to latitude 54°40′N, as the Democrats had been elected on the slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight".
While his government asserted that the title of the United States of America to the entire territory was unquestionable even though there was only one U.S. resident north of the Columbia basin, Polk and Secretary of State James Buchanan made an offer of a boundary at 49 degrees with the line straight across Vancouver Island, with no commercial privilege to be granted to the British south of the line, with the exception of free ports on Vancouver Island. The British rejected the offer and the U.S. soon withdrew it.
On April 18, 1846, notice was forwarded to London that the U.S. Congress had adopted a joint resolution abrogating the Treaty of 1818 which provided for joint occupancy.
The British emissary, Richard Pakenham, had been advised that the last concession he could expect of the United States was to bend the boundary at the 49th parallel around the southern end of Vancouver Island. Fort Victoria was viewed as the future center for settlements on the island. It was deemed necessary around this point in time to give up territory on the Lower Mainland to keep Vancouver Island part of British North America.
Lord Aberdeen, British Foreign Secretary, proposed a treaty making the 49th parallel the boundary to the sea, giving the UK the whole of Vancouver Island. The Treaty of Oregon was concluded on June 15, 1846.
The acceptance of the 49th parallel as the international boundary was concluded without precise knowledge of its effects. Later, as the Boundary Commission surveyed the line, the British government realized the peninsula of Point Roberts would be an isolated part of the United States. The British Foreign Office instructed Captain James Prevost, the British Boundary Commissioner, to inform his U.S. counterpart of the situation and request Point Roberts be left to Britain, because of the great inconvenience it would be to the United States. If the American Boundary Commission was reluctant, Prevost was instructed to offer "some equivalent compensation by a slight alteration of the Line of Boundary on the Mainland". It is not known how the U.S. commissioner responded, but Point Roberts became part of the United States.

Relationship with Canada

During the 1858 Fraser gold rush, prospectors from Victoria, BC who were attempting to avoid tax collection briefly settled Point Roberts. Their settlement was called Robert's Town and consisted of six wooden buildings, including a store and saloon, but lasted less than a year.
In 1949, there was talk about Point Roberts seceding from the U.S. and joining Canada. A regional development plan for the Lower Mainland presented in 1952 suggested turning Point Roberts into an international park or leasing it for 99 or 999 years. In 1973, a drought that caused the wells to run dry created tensions between Point Roberts' U.S. and Canadian residents. The Americans threatened to cut off the Canadian residents' water supply — and hung up signs saying "Canadians Go Home" — unless the Canadian municipality of Delta agreed to provide water. An agreement signed on August 28, 1987, requires the Point Roberts Water District to purchase raw water on an annual basis from the Greater Vancouver Water District. Delta Fire Department also provides assistance to the Point Roberts volunteer fire department when requested. Until 1988, BC Tel provided telephone service; the sole exchange prefix of 945, officially part of area code 206, could also be dialed through area code 604 during the period of BC Tel ownership.
After the September 11 attacks of 2001, security at border crossings—including Point Roberts—was increased, leading to long delays for residents. In response to the March 2020 closure of the border crossing to non-essential travel during the coronavirus pandemic, the Whatcom County government is considering a temporary ferry to Blaine or using small planes to connect residents with the mainland.

Geography

Point Roberts is a U.S. exclave bordered by Canada and the waters of Boundary Bay. It is south of Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Point Roberts is part of the U.S. because it lies south of the 49th parallel, which constitutes the Canada–US border in that area. Other exclaves of this type include the U.S. state of Alaska, parts of Minnesota such as the Northwest Angle and Elm Point, Minnesota. Alburgh, Vermont and nearby Province Point are separated from the rest of the U.S. by Lake Champlain, though Alburgh is reachable by highway bridge from "mainland" Vermont.
Point Roberts borders the municipality of Delta in British Columbia. Boundary Bay lies to the east of Point Roberts and the Strait of Georgia to the south and west. The U.S. portion of the peninsula is about from north to south and about from east to west. It has an area of.

Geology

Beneath Point Roberts, the bedrock of the Chuckanut Formation was deposited as an alluvial plain containing layers of sediments consisting of silt, sand, sand and gravel, and peat. During the last 60 million years the sediments were compacted and folded by mountain building forces from continental drift to form strata of siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate and coal. During recent geologic history, the Chuckanut formation was overridden by four or more glaciations.
Point Roberts consists of a series of the resulting glacial sediments resting upon the Chuckanut Formation. The lowest glacial sediments are from Salmon Springs or older glaciations. At the peak of the most recent glaciation, the main ice sheet was in excess of 7,000 feet thick as it moved southward between Vancouver Island and the Canadian Coast Range and down the Strait of Georgia. A smaller lobe of the continental glacier in excess of 5,000 feet traveled down the Fraser River flood plains merging with the main ice sheet over the greater Vancouver area and Whatcom and Skagit Counties. The coalesced continental ice sheet traveled south terminating in the vicinity of Chehalis, Washington. Relatively impermeable Vashon glacial lodgment till was plastered over the advance outwash as the weight of the 7,000 foot thick plus Strait of Georgia ice lobe moved southward over approximately 10,000 years. Point Roberts, Tsawwassen, and part of British Columbia extending past English Bluff comprised an island at the close of the Vashon Glaciation, approximately 11,000 years ago.
As the ice sheets melted, the thinner Fraser Lobe began to float while the Strait of Georgia lobe acted as a dam forming a lake under the Fraser Lobe. Sediments settling from the melting, floating ice resulted in the accumulation of 300 feet or more of Glacial Marine Drift over much of western Whatcom County. This Glacial Marine Drift is generally soft and was not consolidated by the weight of the glacier. A discontinuous, thin mantle of this Glacial Marine Drift above the Glacial Lodgment Till has been identified sporadically across Point Roberts. The uppermost layer of glacial sediments consists of recessional sand, silt, and gravel deposited as the Strait of Georgia ice lobe receded. Since the recession of the glaciers, the Fraser River has deposited deltaic sediments on the north and easterly side of the Point Roberts-Tsawwassen Island connecting it to the Greater Vancouver mainland. At some locations, these sediments have been eroded or removed exposing the lodgment till.

Parks and features

Despite the proximity of a latitude of 49 °N, Point Roberts has an Oceanic climate although winters may be colder for this climatic subtype, similar to the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland axis. Point Roberts lies within a depression created by Vancouver Island, the north shore mountains surrounding Vancouver, and the North Cascades. This micro-climate provides some of the mildest weather in the Pacific Northwest. With annual precipitation of about 1000 mm, Point Roberts enjoys more sunny days and a milder climate than its neighbors. Although their northern location suggests a harsh winter, snow averages and low January temperatures are softer than the American average: 8.4 in vs 25.8 in and 35.8 °F vs 22.6 °F, respectively. Although the amount of rainfall is less than the average, it is more distributed during the year, in all are 146 days of precipitation. The comfort index is considerably high.

Demographics

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 1,314 people, 678 households, and 372 families residing in the Point Roberts ZCTA. There were 2,068 housing units, only 678 of which were occupied. The racial makeup of the ZCTA was 91.9% White, 0.8% African American, 0.8% Native American, 4.5% Asian, 0.3% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2.4% of the population.
The age distribution was 16.2% under 20, 3.0% from 20 to 24, 16.2% from 25 to 44, 40.7% from 45 to 64, and 23.9% who were 65 or older. The median age was 52.7 years.
The median income for a household in the ZCTA was $58,672; the median income for a family was $75,724; and the per capita income was $39,696.
During the summer the population swells to about 4,500, most of the visitors being vacationing Canadians.
Point Roberts' population includes descendants of Icelandic immigrants, who first settled there in the 1890s.

Economy

Many of the area's businesses serve weekend and recreational visitors from Greater Vancouver. Canadians visit for cheaper American gasoline, alcohol, and food when the Canadian dollar is strong; Americans from Point Roberts do the same in Canada. Many Canadians visited its bars and nightclubs on Sundays until Sunday drinking was legalized in British Columbia in 1986. The local post office and several private companies rent many post office boxes to individuals and businesses from the Greater Vancouver area, who find it a convenient and fast way to receive mail and parcels from the United States without paying for cross-border shipping costs. The U.S. Consulate General in Vancouver also used the Point Roberts post office, but it has since changed to using one in Blaine, directly on the border.
Because entry to Point Roberts from the rest of the U.S. requires two international border crossings, it has sometimes been described as "the best gated community in the U.S." Residents enjoy a low crime rate at the cost of a high local security presence and other inconveniences. While there is one doctor's clinic, there is no hospital, dentist, pharmacist or veterinarian, and because American health insurers will not pay for treatment from Canadian providers, Point Roberts residents usually seek medical care in Bellingham, Washington, although Vancouver is closer.

Education

Point Roberts Primary School, the only school on the Point, provides only kindergarten and first, second and third grades. From fourth grade on, American children must take a 40-minute ride through British Columbia, crossing back into the United States at Blaine, Washington. Canadian children can attend school in Delta, British Columbia.

Infrastructure

Transportation

The only authorized land access to Canada from Point Roberts is Point Roberts-Boundary Bay Border Crossing, the westernmost in the Lower 48. On the US side, this major thoroughfare northward is named Tyee Drive; on the Canadian side, it is 56th Street. Point Roberts also has a small airport and a large marina for air and water access; these two point facilities allow direct access to the rest of Washington state without the need to enter Canada.
Roosevelt Road follows the US side of the border across the peninsula. To the west it ends at a small park, Monument Park built around Monument 1, the westernmost point of the 49th parallel border.

Telecommunications

Until 1988, Point Roberts telephone numbers were in British Columbia's area code 604 and served by BCTel, the local telephone company for most of British Columbia. It was served by the 945 exchange which was officially in area code 206, the area code for most of western Washington, but protected in 604, resulting in the oddity of calls from British Columbia being local calls while calls from Washington and the rest of the United States were billed as international calls. In 1988, Point Roberts service was severed from BC Tel, and the protection of the 604-945 prefix ended, at the expense of losing the ability to make local calls to any other exchange in either country. Along with the rest of Whatcom County, Point Roberts moved to area code 360 in 1995. The local regular-service telecom provider is Whidbey Telecom.
Although Point Roberts is nominally part of the Seattle television market, the only over-the-air stations available in the town come from the Metro Vancouver region and Bellingham, Washington. Cable television in Point Roberts was provided by Delta Cable, a subsidiary of Canadian cable company EastLink. Delta Cable pulled out of Point Roberts with short notice in August of 2019.
Whidbey Telecom is the broadband Internet provider to residents of Point Roberts. In 2019 Whidbey Telecom began construction to provide Fiber Optic Internet to Point Roberts.
Mobile telephone service is provided by a variety of companies, both American and Canadian.

Notable residents

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