Posted on 04/04/2014 5:01:33 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
A couple walked into the Wabegon Bar, flummoxed.
"Where the hell are we?" they asked.
The bartender had heard it before.
That's because the Wabegon is the only bar in Wisconsin you can't get to through Wisconsin.
"Unless you canoe here," said regular Bill Talarico.
The bar is just off a stretch of Minnesota 23 known at the Evergreen Memorial Scenic Drive, which stretches diagonally from Duluth to the far reaches of southwest Minnesota. Just outside of Duluth, though, after the road leaves down-on-its-heels Gary-New Duluth, it crosses the St. Louis River and passes through a spit of Wisconsin barely 2,000-feet wide.
On the western edge of that spit, wedged between the river and the state border (and the Evergreen highway a few feet beyond), sits the Wabegon.
By some long-forgotten engineering gaffe, the driveway to the Wabegon runs from the bar in Wisconsin, over the imaginary border line to the highway in Minnesota.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
And, to really blow your mind, you can hit golf balls SOUTH into Canada from the northern most point of Minnesota.
‘Course you have to drive through Canada to get there...but I have, indeed, done it.
It’s the farthest North point in the contiguous US.
This reminds me of stories about a bar that has the Florida-Alabama state line running right through the middle of it. Closing time in Alabama is 1AM and in Florida it is 2AM. So they have to chase everybody down to the Florida end of the bar for the final hour.
And a drug store on the OH-PA line where you can buy lottery tickets for both states.
Also some family with a house in New Jersey with a driveway in New York State. Since the driving ages are different, it was technically illegal for their 16 year old to drive down the driveway.
There is a similar, but much smaller, spit of land in Washington State. Along the Maine/Canada border there are many such areas but mostly they are very small.
Makes me think of a situation that came up awhile back about 2 of the southern states (can’t remember which ones)had a dispute about where a certain portion of the border actually was. Changing it would have required moving one small town into the other state. Anyone remember this?
Canada is south of Detroit across the Detroit River.
To which he exclaimed, " WELL thank God. I can't stand those Minnesota winters."
There's a town that I've stopped at a couple of times on my way to Montreal called Derby Line,Vermont.It's right on the Quebec border (and right off I-91) and it features a couple of interesting things.One:the Haskell Library.It was built,intentionally,right on the US/Canadian border as a gesture of international friendship.You enter via the US but much of the building,including the checkout desk,is in Canada.Most of the books are in English but many are in in French (because it serves the Quebec town as well).
Two: "Canusa Avenue" ("Canusa" as is Canada and USA).There's a stretch of that road where the pavement itself is entirely in Canada but a few of the houses south of the pavement are in the US.Those people,whenever they leave their driveway,must report to Canadian immigration,which is right down the street.I've driven that street (out of curiosity)...pretty cool,IMO.
And in New Orleans you have to drive east over the river bridge to get to the West Bank.
.... and South Claighborn and South Carolton cross at 90 degrees.
It is New Orleans
A few years back there was a case decided by SCOTUS in which the State of New Jersey had sued the State of New York claiming that both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were in NJ and not in NY.SCOTUS ruled that the Statue was,in fact,in New York but that part of Ellis Island was in New Jersey and part of it was in New York.
I'll wager that it was all about taxes...many,many people visit both sites every year.
A couple of other cases:
SCOTUS decided a case putting the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine and not in New Hampshire (subjecting the unfortunate employees to Maine income taxes)
Some little spit of land on the Delaware coast where erosion and redeposit of sand had created an area that actually stuck over the water boundary and was part of New Jersey. It became a teen drinking and illegal drug hangout, as the closest New Jersey cops were 90 minutes away.
Can’t remember, but it was on “How the States Got Their Shapes”.
The Potomac River belongs to Maryland right up to the low water mark on the Virginia shore. Back in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s gambling and liquor by the drink was legal across the river in certain parts of Southern Maryland, but not anywhere in Virginia. Some clever entrepreneurs built piers from the Virginia community of Colonial Beach into the river where they put together a miniature Las Vegas, with slot machines, bars, and entertainment. The Virginia Supreme Court countered with a ruling that since the piers were connected to Virginia, Virginia law could be applied there. The owners responded by cutting the pier into two parts, separated by a 1” gap where the territory of Maryland began, and that one could easily step across without hardly noticing. Checkmate, and the party continued for decades.
Two years ago, while on vacation in Maine, we visited Campobello Island. The island is entirely within Canada but the land link it into Maine. During the summer, a ferry operates that links the island with other Canadian islands that have land connection to the rest of Canada. The island has no hospital, no bank, no grocery store. For that, they must all cross the border into Maine.
The FlorBama
Floribama Lounge, home of the annual mullet toss.
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