Each January for the past several years a few of us take a long weekend and venture to the northernmost point in Minnesota to the Northwest Angle and Lake of the Woods. For several years that destination has been to a small resort on Oak Island which may be the largest island in Minnesota. It is about eight miles off shore from what they all call “The Angle”. Getting there can be quite a challenge. Because that far away Minnesota location is not connected by land to the rest of the state, you have to get there by driving north of Roseau and into Manitoba and then head easterly back into that small piece of land that Minnesota claimed as a result of a surveying miscue during the early 1800s.
The border crossing north of Roseau requires a pretty standard visit with the Canadian or U.S. Customs folks, most of whom are familiar with the recreation traffic that winds its way through there. The new twist this year is the requirement the you must have a valid passport or passport card. That does mandate a bit of planning but is fairly routine. Still, it seems odd to me that we now have to have such a formalized border policy with the country that is closest to us in so many ways.
After traveling several miles on forest-lined Manitoba back roads that eventually turn to gravel, you drive by a small electric substation next to what looks like a clear-cut fire break though the woods. If you look carefully, you’ll see a small concrete post that has words cast into it that indicate the location of the U.S.-Canadian border. When you drive by that, you re-enter that orphaned little corner of Minnesota.
Several miles later you come to a small building that houses a pair of video phones with pushbuttons for calling either the U.S. or Canadian customs to let them know that you are about to enter one country or another, no matter that you are already several miles into Minnesota. The remote customs call-in station is located where it makes the most sense and is one mile from what was the northernmost post office in the United States, until Alaska joined the union in 1958. It is also the location of the cozy and modern one-room K-8 school that serves the Angle’s families and their kids. Another mile or so and you arrive at Young’s Bay where you drive onto the ice of the huge lake and then another eight miles to Oak Island.
While this all sounds like the kind of trek you might make once in a while, for the folks who live there, it is something most of them do every day. Their older teenage kids go through customs twice each way every day to get to and from Warroad where they go to high school. It takes them around 75 minutes each way. When the lake isn’t frozen or when the ice is too thin to drive on, they go by boat or stay in town.
Life at the Northwest Angle offers much in the way of nature and the outdoors but just a fraction of the day to day conveniences most of us are used to. I always get the feeling the people who live up there wouldn’t trade it for the world. Spending a few days there tells you why. It’s all quite beautiful and peaceful.
Ironically, the first 50 miles were the toughest of the 420 mile trip. Ice and refrozen snow on glazed roads with steep shoulders and oncoming traffic was plenty to deal with. A wide, flat, smooth plowed surface on the Lake of the Woods ice sheet seemed like a breeze compared to the slippery roads north of Maynard.
Last weekend’s warm weather found its way to the Angle but it didn’t seem to put the walleyes in any sort of spring fever. They weren’t very interested in our bait or our jigs and seemed to just lay around on the lake bottom, biding their time as we grew impatient waiting for them to get hungry. The few fish that we did catch were fun to land. The trip was worth those few fish. Maybe it’ll be bitter cold next year. That would feel more like it.
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Each January for the past several years a few of us take a long weekend and venture to the northernmost point in Minnesota to the Northwest Angle and Lake of the Woods. For several years that destination has been to a small resort on Oak Island which may be the largest island in Minnesota. It is about eight miles off shore from what they all call “The Angle”. Getting there can be quite a challenge. Because that far away Minnesota location is not connected by land to the rest of the state, you have to get there by driving north of Roseau and into Manitoba and then head easterly back into that small piece of land that Minnesota claimed as a result of a surveying miscue during the early 1800s.
The border crossing north of Roseau requires a pretty standard visit with the Canadian or U.S. Customs folks, most of whom are familiar with the recreation traffic that winds its way through there. The new twist this year is the requirement the you must have a valid passport or passport card. That does mandate a bit of planning but is fairly routine. Still, it seems odd to me that we now have to have such a formalized border policy with the country that is closest to us in so many ways.
After traveling several miles on forest-lined Manitoba back roads that eventually turn to gravel, you drive by a small electric substation next to what looks like a clear-cut fire break though the woods. If you look carefully, you’ll see a small concrete post that has words cast into it that indicate the location of the U.S.-Canadian border. When you drive by that, you re-enter that orphaned little corner of Minnesota.
Several miles later you come to a small building that houses a pair of video phones with pushbuttons for calling either the U.S. or Canadian customs to let them know that you are about to enter one country or another, no matter that you are already several miles into Minnesota. The remote customs call-in station is located where it makes the most sense and is one mile from what was the northernmost post office in the United States, until Alaska joined the union in 1958. It is also the location of the cozy and modern one-room K-8 school that serves the Angle’s families and their kids. Another mile or so and you arrive at Young’s Bay where you drive onto the ice of the huge lake and then another eight miles to Oak Island.
While this all sounds like the kind of trek you might make once in a while, for the folks who live there, it is something most of them do every day. Their older teenage kids go through customs twice each way every day to get to and from Warroad where they go to high school. It takes them around 75 minutes each way. When the lake isn’t frozen or when the ice is too thin to drive on, they go by boat or stay in town.
Life at the Northwest Angle offers much in the way of nature and the outdoors but just a fraction of the day to day conveniences most of us are used to. I always get the feeling the people who live up there wouldn’t trade it for the world. Spending a few days there tells you why. It’s all quite beautiful and peaceful.
Ironically, the first 50 miles were the toughest of the 420 mile trip. Ice and refrozen snow on glazed roads with steep shoulders and oncoming traffic was plenty to deal with. A wide, flat, smooth plowed surface on the Lake of the Woods ice sheet seemed like a breeze compared to the slippery roads north of Maynard.
Last weekend’s warm weather found its way to the Angle but it didn’t seem to put the walleyes in any sort of spring fever. They weren’t very interested in our bait or our jigs and seemed to just lay around on the lake bottom, biding their time as we grew impatient waiting for them to get hungry. The few fish that we did catch were fun to land. The trip was worth those few fish. Maybe it’ll be bitter cold next year. That would feel more like it.
