Name: The Places Where Sneaking Over the US-Canada Border is Legal
Uploaded: 2019-10-13T18:05:28.000Z
Duration: 6 min 9 s
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To-infinitive

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The imperative

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

Now, this golf club, except for its parking lot, is all located just over the border in

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,

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

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.

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

For example, there's this town which is split in two by the border, however there

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,

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

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

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

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

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

In these places, they just happens to use the honor system—not for murder, that is,

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

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

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.

To support Wendover Productions and learn more about Brilliant, go to Brilliant.org/Wendover