On The Border
By Greg Locke
North Portal, SK – With the 49th Parallel between my legs I straddled the Canada USA border. One foot in Portal, North Dakota and the other in North Portal, Saskatchewan. ….and all that happened was someone asked if I wanted play a round of cross-border golf.
It was 2007, and I was crossing Canada for Canadian Business magazine. The assignment: drive across Canada from Vancouver to Halifax along the Canada – USA border, searching for the stories of people, towns and businesses that span the “world’s longest undefended border,” as the saying goes.
The the majority of Canadians live within 100km of the USA and often visit our southern neighbours. Those of us who live in more remote areas, with little connection to the US, find the common cross-border relationship a little odd.
This assignment would be an adventure and a social, cultural, political and geography experience.
Pure Prairie
There were many great people with wonderful stories. Pure Canadiana. But the one that really struck me was at a remote prairie border crossing at the village of North Portal, Saskatchewan (pop.119) and its American sister, Portal, North Dakota (Pop. 125). Small, unknown to most, and the major border crossing point for rail traffic between Canada and the USA, on the Canadian Pacific and Soo Line. Despite is size, both towns, in Canada and the USA, maintain 24hr customs offices at this Port of Entry.
As important an economic trade centre that may be, this place is famous for its golf course. That is what I came to see.
Trans Border Drive
At the Gateway City Golf club, at the 9th hole, you tee off in Canada aiming for the America flag in the cup, across First Ave. Walk across the international frontier at the 49th Parallel into the USA to make the putt.
Then there is the time machine. Since Saskatchewan doesn’t observe daylight saving time but North Dakota does, it means the ball lands in a different country an hour later.
There were no armed soldiers, customs interrogations, Black Hawk helicopters, razor wire, fences, South American drug lords or desperate illegal migrants looking for a safe place in the world to live.
The four men I joined were three Canadians and their American friend. They work for the sister towns or the railway companies that transit between the two countries. All have been friends for many years.
I am not sure how much has changed since 2007 when I walked the railway track and the borderline dipping in and out of the USA and Canada. I didn’t carry a passport or much ID or paperwork at all, just a Driver’s License, vehicle registration and insurance, and a couple of Press ID cards.
This odd story about two small border towns with a golf course that straddles the border was so fresh to me. Towns separated only by a gravel road where friendships, families, shoppers and businesses barely notice the border. Towns where school kids travel back and forth to play sports or hang out with friends. Towns far from the ominous global threats and machinations of politicians.
More than lines on a map.
The Treaty of 1818 saw the expansion of both British North America and the United States, with their boundary extending westward along the 49th parallel, from the Northwest Angle at Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. The treaty extinguished British claims to the south of the 49th in the Red River Valley, which was part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Rupert’s Land. The treaty also ended U.S. claims to land north of the 49th in the watershed of the Missouri River, which was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Along the 49th parallel, the border vista is theoretically straight as seen on a map. In practice, on the ground it follows the 19th-century surveyed border markers and varies by several hundred feet in spots.
On April 11, 1908, the United Kingdom and the United States agreed, under Article IV of the Treaty of 1908 (download the treaty as pdf!) “concerning the boundary between the United States and the Dominion of Canada from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean,”to survey and delimit the boundary between Canada and the U.S. through the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes, by modern surveying techniques, and thus accomplished several changes to the border.
In 1925, the International Boundary Commission’s temporary mission became permanent for maintaining the survey and mapping of the border; maintaining boundary monuments and buoys; and keeping the border clear of brush and vegetation for 6m (20ft). This “border vista” extends for 3m (9.8 ft) on each side of the line.
Canada and The Crown also made treaties with the indigenous people of the region. The Village of North Portal is located on Treaty 2 Territory, which is the traditional territory of the Nakota, Nehiyaw/Cree, Nahkawe/Saulteaux, and Dakota, as well as the traditional homeland of the Métis.
I guess treaties don’t really mean much.
On Friday, February 7, 2025, US President Donald Trump called Canadian Prime Minister in the midst of a brewing trade war to threaten to violate that treaty. Effectively saying, nice treaty you have there. Shame if anything happened to it.
Trump and those around him respect no law, no treaties, no international law or trade agreements.
This how hot wars start. The USA has become a real economic and sovereignty threat to Canada and may be headed to the first major conflict since the War of 1812.
Will friends be able to play golf at the border-spanning 9th hole in North Portal and Portal? Will friends visit each other across the gravel road that denotes the Canada USA border?
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