The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1920-12-07
LINE OF FRIENDSHIP MAY
MARK TRADE ROUTE

Hearings in q dozen cities of both
countries by the United States and
Canadian joint commission to consider
connecting the st. Lawrence river and
the Great Lakes by canal system
awakened new interest in the nearly
1900 miles of border that separates
this country from it's neighbor to the
north.
The boundary between the two great
English-speaking countries of America,
giving them joint ownership of some
of the greatest lakes in the world, as
well as river of prime Importance,
holds possibilities for development
overlooked by many of the citizen
stockholders on both sides of the line.
The single scheme now under discus
sion for the construction of canals to
handle ocean-going ships foreshadows
work that would rival in magnitude
and Importance even the epoch-makirg
engineering feats at Panama. With
huge canals connecting the waters of
the Great Lakes and the ST. Lawrence,
ships capable of negotiating any
weather could sail with the ore, coal
and grain of the western United
States and Canada, directly to any
port of the Seven seas.
Discussion by the two countries of
the feasibility of engaging jointly
in the development of their border
waters is in contrast with some of the
stormy incidents in which the boun-
dairy has figured. Known in recent
years as "the border without forts"
and come at last to be regarded as a
line of amity and friendship 1t is per-
haps not generally realized now that
until the cumulative efforts of years
resulted not long ago in the settlement
of some long-standing disputes, the
United States Canadian boundary was
the source of almost continual misun-
derstanding. Many times there were
unpleasant incidents, twice the coun-
tries were on the verge of war, and for
well over hundred years after the
close of the Revolutionary war diplo
mats, commissioners, and even neutral
kings and emperors acting as arbitra-
tors were kept busy trying to straight
en- out the many snarls into which
border line can become tangled.
Much of the trouble in regard to the
boundary resulted from ignorance of
the geography of the country on the
part of the early negotiaters. The
ST. Croix river which the earliest
treaty stated should form the eastern
line of Maine at the very starting point
of the international boundary was not
satisfactorily identified at first, and
this caused friction for some years.
second geographical error-the as
sumption that the Lake of the Woods
drained into Lake Superior-is respon-
sible for the rather indefinite boun-
dairy of small lakes and brooks be-
tween the two large lakes. The he
lief that the Mississippi river had its
source in Canada. and field notes in
accordance with that belief, brought
about the existence of tract of land
of a hundred square miles. cut off On
a peninsula on the northern shore of
the Lake of the Woods, practically sur
rounded by Canadian territory and
many miles across the water from 9TH
er land of the United States.
In connection with still another
United States-Canadian boundary -
that between southern Alaska and
British Columbia-a mistaken impress
sion Of early Russian traders has Civ
en- the United States a boundary run
ming helter-skelter over foothills and
ridges when it was believed to follow
a mountain watershed, logical geo.
graphical boundary.
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