One of the communities in our county is the result of a quirk of history and geography. The southern tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula was known to the Coast Salish people as a good place to fish and collect clams and oysters. The point of that peninsula was first seen by Europeans in 1791 when the expedition of Francisco de Eliza was exploring the Pacific coast of the continent. The maps produced by that expedition depicted the tip of the peninsula as an island, labeled variously as “Isla de Cepeda” or “Isla de Zepeda.” The next year another Spanish Expedition met up with the British expedition of George Vancouver and the two expeditions met each other in the region and agreed to cooperate in mapping the area. What had previously been thought to be an island was found to be the end of a peninsula. When expedition ships sailed into boundary bay they discovered that it is connected to the mainland. The Vancouver expedition named the tip of the peninsula Point Roberts after Henry Roberts, a friend of George Vancouver who had originally been given command of the expedition.

It isn’t clear exactly when Europeans first began to settle permanently at Point Roberts, but the protection of Boundary Bay and the excellent access to abundant fishing areas made the area an attractive place to live. In 1846, the Oregon Treaty established the official boundary between the United States and the British territory that became Canada. West of the Rocky Mountains the 49th parallel was chosen as the boundary. However, if that boundary was to continue west from the coast it would have divided the Vancouver Island into both countries and the established settlement of Victoria on the island would have ended up in the United States. The city was already serving as the capitol of the area and so the boundary dipped south in the Georgia Strait to make all of Vancouver Island in British territory. Later there were minor changes in the border as it snakes its way among the smaller islands, leaving the San Juan islands in U.S. Territory.

Also remaining part of the United States is the tip of the peninsula with the town of Point Roberts established there. This tiny area is included within the boundaries of Whatcom County despite the fact that travel between the point and the rest of the county overland requires driving through 25 miles of Canadian territory. Like other towns in the northern part of our county, there are many members of the Point Roberts community who hold dual citizenship while others are multi-national families with some members holding Canadian citizenship while other members of the family are citizens of the U.S.

About 1200 residents live in an area of about 5 square miles. There is no pharmacy in Point Roberts. There is no bus or taxi services. There is no veterinarian, no hospital, and while law enforcement is provided by the Whatcom County Sheriff, no officers are assigned to Point Roberts during the night. People who live in Point Roberts are used to making the drive through Canada to Blaine in order to obtain services. Students commute daily from Point Roberts to Blaine High School. Those who have dual citizenship are able to access health care and dental services in the nearby city of Vancouver, but U.S. citizens must travel to Blaine for those services.

Life in Point Roberts suddenly became a unique challenge in 2020 when the border between Canada and the U.S. was closed with a few essential services being allowed to continue. As the border closure continued into 2021, the isolation of the community became a big problem for U.S. citizens who live there. Businesses in the town of Point Roberts suffered from a lack of tourists. Although the border was re-opened to regular traffic later in 2021, the community has never fully recovered from the pandemic.

We have lived in Whatcom County since 2021, and we have yet to make a visit to Point Roberts though we have met several people who regularly travel between Point Roberts and the rest of the County.

Living right next to the border as we now do, I have come to realize how many families are made up of people from both sides of the border. There are members of our church who live in the U.S. and work in Canada as well as Canadians who work in the U.S. Our music director is a Canadian citizen who lives in the U.S. Borders are always arbitrary and artificial to the people who get to know and love those who live on the other side of the line.

Having lived in small towns for much of my life, I am attracted to rural and isolated places. I can understand why people might choose to live in Point Roberts and it is definitely on my list of places to visit. Now that the border has re-opened, we see people from Canada in our community nearly every day. Yesterday I stopped to pick up a few things at the Costco Store in Bellingham and it seemed that nearly half of the vehicles in the parking lot sported British Columbia license plates. Folks from Canada almost always stop to fill up their gas tanks when driving to the U.S. because of the lower prices for fuel on this side of the border.

Air fares, on the other hand, are a reason for U.S. citizens to travel to Canada. Vancouver International is the closest large airport to our home and before we moved to this area, we twice flew on International Flights from Vancouver because air fares between the U.S. and Japan and the U.S. and England were lower from Vancouver than from Seattle. Our daughter and grandson are coming to visit from South Carolina this summer and they will be flying in and out of Vancouver because plane ticket prices were lower for them than flying to Seattle would have been. Picking up someone from the Vancouver airport saves us hours of driving even allowing for a few moments to cross the border.

Except on the foggiest of days we can see Point Roberts across the bay from the beach where we walk most days. One of these days we need to drive the short distance to take a look at our bay from Point Roberts just to experience a different point of view.