Point Roberts, Washington
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Image:WAMap-doton-Point Roberts.png
Image:Aerial shot of southwest corner of Point Roberts.jpg
Point Roberts is an unincorporated community in Whatcom County, Washington, United States, on the southernmost tip of Tsawassen Peninsula. The population is 1,308 (US 2000 census). Point Roberts is one of three exclaves of the contiguous United States, the others being the Northwest Angle in northern Minnesota and the Alburg peninsula in northern Vermont.
Point Roberts, a peninsula, borders British Columbia, Canada, on the north and is part of the US because it lies south of the 49th parallel, the official latitude defining the Canada-US border in that area.
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History
Point Roberts assumed its present status in 1846, when the Oregon Treaty extended the 49th parallel as the boundary between American and British territory from the Rocky Mountains to Georgia Strait. It adjoins the municipality of Delta in British Columbia; the peninsula is about two miles from north to south and about three miles from east to west. Boundary Bay lies to the east of Point Roberts and the Strait of Georgia to the west.
Education
The only school is for K–second-grade pupils; older public school students must be bussed into British Columbia and back into the United States at the Blaine, Washington, border crossing; it is a 40-minute drive.
Transportation
The only authorized land access to Point Roberts is 56th Street, a major thoroughfare that runs through the community of Tsawwassen on the Canadian side of the border; southward, the road turns into Tyee Drive. Point Roberts also has a small runway and a large marina for air and water access.
Economy
Many of the area's businesses are geared toward recreational and weekend visitors from Greater Vancouver, especially those in search of cheap gasoline. The handful of area bars and nightclubs are popular with visiting Canadians, and were even more so in the days before Sunday drinking was legalized in British Columbia.
Until 1988, Point Roberts telephone numbers were in British Columbia's 604 area code and served by BCTel, a Canadian telephone company.
See also
External links
Additional information
- National Geographic article on Point Roberts
- History of Point Roberts
- Point Roberts Pictures
- Discover Vancouver (article on Point Roberts, and its history, from a British Columbian perspective)
Community websites
- All Point Bulletin community newspaper
- Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce
- Point Roberts Golf & Country Club
- Point Roberts Marina Resort
- Lighthouse Marine Park
