Finally the border approaches Lake of the Woods, where it will turn away from the parallel and begin its long meander across the Canadian Shield. The landscape and its image present a rich tapestry here, in which the border itself is an ambiguous presence. Where we can identify the line of latitude, it appears as the border vista, or as differences in land use: forest and wetlands have been cut away to create farmland, but only on one side of the border.
In its very last kilometre as border, the parallel crosses the cape of Elm Point. This is the large peninsula jutting out into the lake towards the right side of the image. The cleared path of a border vista cuts east-west across its north edge. This is a practical exclave of the United States. From the American side, it can only be reached by water; to approach it by land, you must come through Canada. Elm Point is attached to one country, but belongs to another.
After this, the border turns sharp north to sever another exclave, the Northwest Angle, a kink that was a result of a mapping error. Just to the west of Elm Point is the even tinier exclave of Buffalo Bay Point. These three remain detached possessions of the United States.
Even on the farmed American side, distinct territories of land ownership and occupation can be identified; like the border, these are created by arbitrary lines of possession.
Another odd result of the juxtaposition of times: a cloud cut as though by a knife, and the sharp edge of a dark and shadowy territory bordering the bright lakeshore, suggests distinct and contradictory realities coinciding in one space. What would happen, we might wonder, if we were to follow that curving road from the bright land into the dark?
As the border approaches the edge of Lake of the Woods, it dissipates; all permutations of land use give way to a shoreline ecosystem that erases almost every human trace.
on site review 38: borders, lines, breaks and breaches 8
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