Park Right Here

N.B. Yesterday’s post noted that the Lily Point purchase had been completed by the Whatcom Land Trust. It should also be noted that private fund raising continues for this purchase. This is because the Land Trust was coming up against a deadline and used about $250,000 from its reserves to complete the purchase. However, the Trust needs to recoup this funding. And that is why private fund raising continues, including an event this weekend, April 26, at the Point (open to the public: meet at the cemetery at 10 a.m.). So it’s not only not too late to contribute to the future of the Point, but it is close to a real duty, in my view.

Lily Point is the new park, right at the southeast corner of Point Roberts. For unknown but aesthetically pleasing reasons, there is a park at each corner. At the northeast corner is Maple Beach, which has no maple. At the southwest corner is Lighthouse Park which has no lighthouse. And at the northwest corner, high up above the ocean, is Monument Park, which doesn’t have much park but does have a monument.

The monument was built, I am told, in 1861, while the U.S. was engaged in its very own civil war, so it was nice of them to take the time, to make the effort. I assume it was a follow-up to President Buchanan’s decision to hang on to Point Roberts as a military asset when the border was set at the 49th parallel (instead of the much more memorable ‘54-40 or fight’ that I learned in elementary school; apparently, no fight happened and the bottom half of Vancouver Island went away, too). It’s twenty feet high and undistinguished, but perhaps in 1861 it looked better. Perhaps in 1861, not much of anyone was looking. It is the first monument placed by the International Boundary Commission which is responsible for keeping clear a 6-meter space on each side of the U.S.-Canadian border.

The International Boundary Commission has managed to make news in recent years now that we have an administration unimpressed by International anythings. The Commission has a U.S. and a Canadian commissioner, each of whom is appointed by the appropriate country. However, it is not a Commission that is ‘owned’ by either country: it is an international commission. A few years ago, in connection with a suit about property on the border owned by an American, the Commissioners argued that the property owner could not build a fence right up to the border, because the 6-meter space is supposed to be kept clear and has always been kept clear.

The Bush Administration, displeased with this reasoning, then fired the American Commissioner and appointed someone else to replace him. The American Commissioner whom the administration was trying to replace pointed out that the treaty that created the International Boundary Commission permitted the two countries to appoint one Commissioner each or to fill a vacancy should it occur, but it did not permit either country to fire a commissioner once appointed. The administration appointed someone else anyway, the Canadian Commissioner said he didn’t have a dog in this fight, and the previous U.S. Commissioner maintains he is still the Commissioner. You can hear this whole story on This American Life, whose archives are located here. The relevant program is March 28, 2008, and is titled ‘The Audacity of Government.’

Point Roberts itself may be some kind of monument to the audacity of government, of course.