I was on a work call recently with a gentleman from Minnesota. Somehow the conversation turned to topography (duh ... don't all of your conversations turn to this topic?) and he mentioned the Northwest Angle in Minnesota .. which is kinda-not-really even IN Minnesota.
Except for minor surveying errors, it is the only place in the contiguous United States north of the 49th parallel ... The land area of the Angle is separated from the rest of Minnesota by Lake of the Woods, but shares a land border with Canada.
In other words, if you want to get to the "Angle" from Minnesota, you can either drive through Canada or cross the Lake of the Woods ... when it's not iced over.
This got me thinking about other border abnormalities that exist (or could) ... and there are PLENTY of them. A decade ago, my wife and I were driving along the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia. We crossed into Bosnia for several miles before entering ... Croatia again.
North Carolina even has its fair share of odd border things. On Ocracoke Island, for instance, there is a spit of land that is technically British. And Our State magazine researched the "bump" along the N.C.-Virginia border.
Even on a large foldout map, the sharp change in the boundary line doesn’t even make a centimeter’s difference. We’re talking about less than a mile here.
(Long story short: it's complicated.)
I have heard that several islands along the Outer Banks are shared with either Virginia or South Carolina. And I'm still waiting for us to officially annex Bermuda, but that's for another time.
There HAS to be other border abnormalities that impact or impacted the Old North State. Are you aware of any?
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