Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
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Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#2This is great. The treaty referred to the “northwestern most point” when everyone thought the lake was more or less round but in practice there is no single unambiguous resolution. When I return to work, I want to put a print of the annotated 1912 survey map (showing all of the various compromises and treaty amendments) on my office wall as a reminder that all contract language is, at some level, an imprecise abstraction.
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#3Reminds of software development estimation. You start out with a rough "ballpark" idea of the task and say it will take about 10 days.
Then you actually start the task and realize how screwed you are.
And then your manager thinks you're an idiot because you said 10 days and it's 150 years later and required a treaty with Canada to resolve.
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#4There is a great youtube video on this and similar can-US border irregularities. Search for "Canada-US no touching zone". There is another exclave near vancouver.
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#5Thanks for sharing. Through "link-hopping", researching one of the named figures I stumbled upon quite some interesting theories and learned quite a lot today.
So this gem of trivia provided quite a great procrastination.
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#6Funny to see this on hn, I worked at a canoeing camp in Lake of the woods, and as such have spent a good amount of time in the northwest angle. I've even sung a rendition of proud Mary in the northern most bar of the contiguous US.
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#7As someone whose line of work is land titles and surveying, this is particularly interesting! Good find.
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#8There is a great youtube video on this and similar can-US border irregularities. Search for "Canada-US no touching zone". There is another exclave near vancouver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMkYlIA7mgw
I grew up in Tsawwassen in the late 70's & early 80's and Pt. Roberts was nothing like today; you could buy property for next to nothing, but why would anyone want a swamp shack in the middle of nowhere? I remember a neighbour who used to ride his bike to the border, walk across the "no touch" zone and buy cheap pipe tobacco - try that today and see what happens!
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#9Another consequence of incomplete geography and unclear surveying was the Toledo War between Ohio and the Michigan Territory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War
In the end, the loser was Wisconsin: Ohio got Toledo and Michigan got the UP.
Re: Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods
#10This is great. The treaty referred to the “northwestern most point” when everyone thought the lake was more or less round but in practice there is no single unambiguous resolution. When I return to work, I want to put a print of the annotated 1912 survey map (showing all of the various compromises and treaty amendments) on my office wall as a reminder that all contract language is, at some level, an imprecise abstrac…
> all contract language is, at some level, an imprecise abstraction
Great insight. And more generally, all language is an imprecise abstraction.