Issues → March/April 2009 → Features →
United States/Canada Border
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The library in Derby Line is perhaps the most famous landmark along this 759-mile stretch between New England and Canada: The International Boundary cuts right through the middle of the building. Lest you think that was a mistake, it was, in fact, on purpose. Haskell Free Library & Opera House was a gift of friendship from Martha Stewart Haskell and her son, Horace Stewart Haskell, to the "boundary villages of Derby Line, Rock Island, and Stanstead," as a memorial to her husband, Carlos F. Haskell. Mrs. Haskell was Canadian and her husband was American--hence the dual allegiance.
The cornerstone was laid in 1901, and this gesture of friendship between the two countries was constructed of granite (U.S.) and yellow brick (Canadian). The interior is elegant, with intricate woodwork and marble floors. The lobby is in the United States; the circulation desk is in Canada. A line of black tape runs diagonally across the reading room and through the rest of the building, too, a comical reminder of Mrs. Haskell's charitable embrace of the two cultures. Now patrons are warned not to park on the Canadian side of the building if they're American, or on the U.S. side if they're Canadian. If they do, and they fail to report to customs, they may be arrested.
East of Derby Line, the town of Holland, Vermont (population 588), is a wide plain of farms and fields, stretching as far as I can see. I ask the town clerk, Diane Judd, whether there's a crossing in Holland.
"Well, no legal crossing," she replies. "But we have plenty of activity. There was an arrest just last week, and in the winter people cross on snowmobiles."
As in many towns of the Northeast Kingdom, most of the roads are dirt. I drive down one road and come to a farm on a high rise, with open fields all around and a view of the town center and the hills beyond. I get out and walk over to the old farmhouse, which seems to have been partially renovated. It looks abandoned. Still, the lawn has been neatly trimmed, and the fields are freshly mown. Behind the house is the telltale obelisk--the boundary marker. A grassy road disappears into the woods, blocked by a big gate that sports a stop sign and warnings not to proceed any farther: the end of America.
Back down the road, I stop at a house where a woman is sweeping her front steps. I ask whether the farm at the end of the road is for sale. "I don't know who owns that house," she says. "I've lived here 11 years and I've never seen him."
The next day, I visit Fernando Beltran, Patrol Agent in Charge at the Newport border station, about 7 miles from Holland. Beltran watches over 32 miles of the 90-mile Vermont boundary. Almost every border patrol agent I'll speak with will feel the need to differentiate himself from the customs agents who check people at ports of entry. "There's port entry and then there's everything in between," Beltran tells me. "It's everything in between that we take care of." That includes places like the abandoned farm I saw in Holland. "We have sensors," he explains. "We know you're there."
Dressed in what looks like military fatigues, Beltran is charming, welcoming, easy to talk to. His speech is tinged with a slight Latino accent. But he doesn't want to talk much about his work; he says he can't reveal where or how agents operate or how many of them there are. Instead he talks about himself. The son of migrant workers, he grew up on farms across the country. "I started working in the fields with my parents when I was 7," he says. "I was born in Oregon. We were there picking pears. We went where the work was--Minnesota, wherever."
Reader Comments
Comment from JANE A REEL on April 5, 2009
Thank you for an intriguing story. I had never really thought about the issues connected to our border with Canada. Some of the things Edie Clark encountered highlight the mystery . On a topic unrelated to the story, I can't imagine living in such a remote area. This story gave me a lot to think about.
Comment from Ronald Donett on April 10, 2009
This was a very thought provoking article. This is only my opinion,but to me the worst tragedy since 9/11 is how society in general has changed. I am now 60 years of age and it just seems to me that we used to live in a world where people in general loved and cared for one another. Now,it is more of a 'me first' attitude on the part of many people. You can say hello to someone and they will drop their head and act as if you are not even there. I have gone different places and someone will go ahead of you through a door and not hold it for you. Isn't it sad? The article about the New England - Canada border only magnifies how the society that we live in has drastically changed. The one thing that I take comfort in knowing is that in time,goodness always triumphs over evil.
Comment from chris hall on April 15, 2009
the Border creates more problems than it solves. it needs to be done with.
Comment from Sandra Basgall on April 26, 2009
EastportMaine was settled in 1780, incorporated in 1798. It was seized by the British in 1814 but in 1818 was returned to the United States through the Treaty of Ghent. Fort Sullivan at Eastport, built in 1810, had a meteoric life - only four years later, on July 11,1814 when a British fleet of a dozen warships of 200 guns with troop transports hove into sight, the fort?s six officers and 80 men surrendered upon demand.
Comment from Jim Crosbie on May 27, 2009
Your article was both interesting and sad. I'm 61 and have travelled back and forth to Prince Edward Island and the Maritimes since I was born. My Mom was born on a farm in P.E.I. and I have loved visiting our "Home from Away". It is such a sad commentary on our society in general that we now fear everything and everyone. After 9/11 our government overreacted as they usually do and brought fear and uncertainty instead of calm and thoughtful actions to deal with the tragedy of 9/11. Our age of innocence is gone forever.
Comment from Andy Grossman on August 14, 2009
I have been at the Derby Line/Rock Island border a half dozen times over the past 45 years; the freezing of the border in recent years is a great pity. Some years ago I researched border issues and was told that US Customs tries to buy up and demolish houses that straddle the border. One hopes that the Haskell Free Library will avoid that fate. Another anomaly I was told about was that -- at least in the days before the "Carte soleil" [Quebec health insurance scheme ID card] -- the clinic in Newport VT was the closest maternity facility and many Quebeckers from the area were born there, thus being dual nationals. Then there were those families in houses straddling the border who had to make Grandma sleep on one side or the other to get SSI (from Social Security) or Canadian Old Age Security, each of which has a residence qualification. Finally there was the matter of the Quebec sovereignty movement, and the "francisation" program that preceded it -- linguistically separating Quebec from "the other". My company, a (tiny) Quebec corporation, had to change its name into French even though it did no business in that province and its name became unpronounceable except to somebody who is bilingual and logical nonsense in either language. For what it's worth I always get a bigger smile from the Canadian border police when I speak to them in French; the identity crisis will not go away.
Comment from NAOMI BIGELOW on December 21, 2009
Yo boy, am I homesick now. After seven years in the White Mountains and a lot of trips west and east again, small adventures when I took off alone and drove up into Quebec, through the Eastern Townships and across Ontario to Michigan and back to NH, I felt so comfortable with traveling alone in Canada. I'd memorized many local landmarks in both provinces and knew where the nice places were to stop for coffee or a meal. Now, because my passport has expired, my easy zip across from Port Huron/Sarnia and through the southern Ontario peninsula will have to be a much longer and less relaxing trip around the Great Lakes and across. I hate it. I have a great deal of affection for my old route; I feel at home when reaching Derby Line. What a bummer. It is just so sad that our cultures have to clash in ways that most of us would rather not see happen. I consider myself a citizen of the world and Canadians as just some more of the distant cousins (and I do have a lot of ancestors who immigrated to Canada from Europe rather than the US).
And to Andy Grossman: Yep; I made the mistake of asking an Ontario Provincial police officer stationed in Coaticook (in English) if he spoke English, because I knew my French was too limited to ask for the information that I needed. Stiff as a ramrod he inquired in French if I spoke French. (I'd forgotten about the Francophone/Anglaisphone(sic) contention and it's passionate division of the population. I replied with a pitiful attempt to convince him in his language that, "Ma Francais is tree petite and tres mal." (Sorry, best I could do!) I was completely convinced and immediately inquired in flawless and professional English, "How may I help you?" Oh for the day when people are just people.
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