In Which I Learn a New Term for a Very Inconspicuous Type of Territory
What exactly is a “pene-exclave”? Read on to find out.
In 2001, I read a New York Times article about a tiny town in Washington called Point Roberts (indicated by the yellow arrow in the map shown above), which has a classically inconspicuous distinction: Although it is part of the United States, its residents can reach anywhere else in America only by leaving America, driving through about 26 miles of Canada, and then re-crossing the border. The same is true for anyone in the lower 48 states who wants to visit Point Roberts — they must cross the border into Canada and then re-enter the U.S.
If we zoom in on Point Roberts, you can get a better sense of the situation:
As you can see, Point Roberts is at the southern terminus of a small peninsula that extends just barely below the American/Canadian border. That border, as stipulated by the Oregon Treaty of 1846, runs along the 49th parallel, which cuts through the peninsula. As a result, Point Roberts is, as that 2001 Times article put it, a “cartographic curiosity.” That’s precisely the sort of thing I enjoy, so Point Roberts immediately became one of my Favorite Places, even though I’d never been there (and still haven’t, although it’s on my list).
Point Roberts tends to be in the news when there’s heightened tension at the U.S./Canada border. That 2001 Times article, for example, was about how Point Roberts residents were having to deal with much more time-consuming border crossings due to increased security measures enacted in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Similarly, I saw several articles about Point Roberts during the pandemic, when the border was shut down.
As you are probably aware, the U.S./Canada border — and, indeed, Canada’s very sovereignty — has lately been called into question by current American government. That government has also enacted some tariffs that people on the other side of the border find highly problematic. As a result, there have been lots of articles lately about assorted border towns, including Derby, Vermont, Port Huron, Michigan, and, yes, Point Roberts, Washington.
That last link is for another New York Times article, from earlier this month. It includes a term I hadn’t seen in previous Point Roberts articles (or anywhere else): pene-exclave. Per Wikipedia, a pene-exclave is “a part of the territory of one country that can be conveniently approached — in particular, by wheeled traffic — only through the territory of another country.” (This means Alaska is technically a pene-exclave as well, although a much less obscure one than Point Roberts.) I’m not sure how I managed to know about Point Roberts for nearly 25 years without picking up the term pene-exclave somewhere along the way, but I’m extremely happy to have learned it now.
If you follow the 49th parallel east from Point Roberts, you’ll eventually get to north-central Minnesota, and it turns out that there are two pene-exclaves there as well: the Northwest Angle and Elm Point. Here’s an overview shot, followed by a closer look: