June, 2022
Let’s head for the border! 🙂 When I visited the Blaine Marine Park in my last blog post, I took a few photos of the Peace Arch that sits on the border between Canada and the USA, although those photos were taken from a distance. Today, I’m going to get as close to the Peace Arch (and the border) as I can.
I got there! Not only did I get to the Peace Arch, but I walked inside it, right through the middle of the Peace Arch. There were no fences. I walked across the border between the USA and Canada, several times — stepping on the border, jumping across, etc. No one else was around (except hundreds of cars heading north to Canada on the road on the east side of the Peace Arch and hundreds of cars heading south to the USA on the road on the west side of the Peace Arch). I’m sure there were cameras all around me and I hope the border guards enjoyed my shenanigans. 🙂 I had a great time.
I took a LOT of photos. There are more photos in this blog post than in any other blog post I’ve produced. Even with all the photos I’ve shared here, I still had trouble not sharing more photos from this excursion. Click to enlarge photos. Enjoy. 🙂
So, as usual, first off, here’s a Google image of where I went …
The YELLOW boundary, as you can see, runs smack dab right through the middle of the white Peace Arch.
The RED STAR in the lower right is a parking lot in the Peace Arch State Park (USA). No camping there, but it has a large parking lot, with dozens of picnic tables, and a walkway through some garden areas, past public restrooms, and some admin buildings — a walkway that leads right to the Peace Arch. How perfect.
But also, before you leave the image above, notice that immediately above the YELLOW border, on the right side of the image above, there is a road there with four WHITE lines on it. I put the white lines there to get your attention. 🙂 Look how close that road is to the border. We’ll be taking a close look at that road further down this blog post.
I parked the big white truck and headed out on foot to explore this state park, and the area, with hopes of getting to the Peace Arch from here.
There was a large kiosk with a great many informational displays. I’ll share three of them with you.
Establishing this border between Canada (owned by the English back then) and the USA was not easy. There were differences of opinion! Over several decades. As the third image from the kiosk below suggests, eventually war was declared, which turned into the infamous “pig war”. In truth, both the English and the USA occupied one island and did almost come to blows or weapon fire with/towards each other. In the end, an agreement was reached and no humans were killed, and no shots were fired between the two groups of humans. But … there was a pig that died, shot … I can’t remember which side shot the pig, but it was shot because of the “war” not because it was being used for food. Hence, the “pig war”.
Ok, enough of that. 🙂 Let’s continue the walk through the gardens and past the buildings while I make my way over to the Peace Arch.
All of the plants here are native to the area. It seemed lush and rich to me.
Not only were there all manner of native plants and flowers here, but a good number of art installations and sculptures.
“Yin Yang” marble stone sculpture by Viven Chiu, a sculptor/artist who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
And then I walked around a curve on the paved path … and saw the Peace Arch.
The road/street directly in front of me is the road that vehicles take when heading to the right, north, into Canada at this border crossing. The vehicles heading to the left, just past the Peace Arch are heading south into the USA.
I could simply walk across that road to the Peace Arch … no boundaries, no fences, no guards. The lawn to the left/south of the Peace Arch is USA … the lawn to the right/north of the Peace Arch is Canada.
But before I walked across that crosswalk to the Peace Arch, I walked further north on the grass beside the road, up to where the border is (photo below) and stood ON the border and looked towards the Peace Arch. You might notice the two concrete “posts” each with a white base, perfectly aligned. I’m standing on the border.
Then I walked back south a bit so I was for sure in the USA and then I crossed that road and walked over to the Peace Arch.
Notice the “gate” on the inner wall at the bottom of the Peace Arch. There was a similar “gate” on the other inner side as well. Each was permanently affixed open, bolted to the wall, never to be closed.
There were also a number of plaques attached to the Peace Arch. I especially liked the one below — partly because it mentioned no names of humans. It was simply all about peace.
I was a bit nervous that there were no fences, or lines painted on the grass, or some other sort of definition or delineation or demarcation that let me know where I could walk and where I couldn’t. I didn’t want to misstep. I really didn’t want eight thousand Canadian troops charging down on me for taking ONE tiny step into Canada without authorization.
On the other hand, I would have loved to see a troop of Royal Canadian Mounted Police on horses ride over the hill toward me. But, ’twas not to be.
As mentioned, I did walk across this border, several times, and eventually I walked for quite a distance up closer to the Canadian administration building and quite close to the large planting of flowers that represented the Canadian flag … no one said a word to me.
Here below is another photo of the Canadian flag, the Maple Leaf, in flowers. THIS photo was taken without zoom. I was standing in Canada.
I walked around for quite awhile. Most of my great-grandparents or grandparents came from Ireland and Scotland and Wales, through Canada, and eventually into the USA, maybe the others did too, tho I don’t know for sure. Canada has always seemed safe to me. And it did today as well.
I walked back down to the Peace Arch, to the border, and stood with my back to the Peace Arch and looked east. Wow, is that a road there in the distance, or at least a walkway? Notice the black/dark stone post/obelisk at the foot of that walkway, near the base of the large tree. That post is right smack dab on the border. That means that the blacktop walkway is in Canada, and the tree is in the USA.
Here are some photos (below) of that post/obelisk. Indeed it is precisely on the border, and that blacktop walkway is indeed in Canada.
The two photos below were taken while I was standing in the USA and looking north into Canada.
The two photos below were taken while I was standing in Canada and looking south into the USA.
I was very much aware that there were no fences here either, no signs warning not to cross the border, no yellow tape, no guards, no warning not to walk on the blacktop walkway and so walk into Canada, or vice versa and walk into the USA from Canada.
After exploring the area around the Peace Arch for a couple of hours, I decided to head back to my truck. By now, it was late morning and there were more people in the Peace Arch State Park enjoying the day and the picnic area.
But then I noticed those homes and the road along the north/left edge of the picnic area in the photo above and I got seriously distracted by all of that. The road seemed to line up with that blacktop walkway back by that obelisk, but that walkway was in Canada. So I walked partway back there and indeed, this road leads directly from that walkway.
In the photo below, the green lawn on the right is the Peace Arch State Park and is in the USA. But the road, the blacktop road on the left, is in Canada. I was stunned. There was nothing to prevent anyone from simply walking back and forth across the border. In fact, there were several locations along this road/street where there was a path between the two countries, with a culvert under the path so water could run along that ditch. It seemed that the ditch was the border, but numerous ways to simply walk across that border without “checking in” were purposefully provided here.
I walked on the grass (in the USA) next to the ditch, almost to the tall trees in the distance. There were a few signs along the way, mostly posted where the paths were that made it easy to walk across the ditch and across the border.
But there was nothing that said “DO NOT CROSS THIS BORDER!” I didn’t notice any way to drive across the border here, but people can simply walk across. On the other hand, with technology what it is, maybe every telephone pole has a camera and infrared devices and digital sensors and such that the border guards in both countries know when someone walks across the border. I don’t know. I didn’t try it. 🙂
And then I did head back to the big white truck in order to head back to my campsite. I took the two photos below of the entrance to the Peace Arch State Park as I was driving out.
An online website says … “The first Peace Arch was built during the summer of 1915 when the Vancouver B.C. [Canada] Automobile Club erected an arch made of logs. On the side they attached a copper plaque that read; “Erected by the Vancouver Automobile Club in commemoration of the Peace Centenary 5 July 1915.” This commemorated the 100 years of peace between Great Britain and the United States.”
What I read on the BBC website and on numerous other websites is that Canada is hoping to increase the number of immigrants entering Canada. With an increasingly aging population, Canada needs younger people. And Canada acknowledges that, except for Native Nations, every human being in Canada is an immigrant. If immigrants aren’t welcome, they say that means that 95% of the population must leave. Hmmm, what a concept.
I know, there are all kinds of issues around “immigration”. Let’s not start that discussion here. But let’s appreciate that there are open doors in the world. And there are people all over the world who understand we are one people.
If you get a chance, go see this Peace Arch. It’s just north of Blaine in Washington, and just south of White Rock in British Columbia. And there are no fences here.
Peace. 🙂