Elm Point, Minnesota
{{Short description|Uninhabited cape and exclave of the United States}}
File:Original Survey T164N R36W Detail.jpg of Township 164 North, Range 36 West, showing Elm Point. This township was annexed to Roseau County by proclamation of Governor Clough dated February 10, 1896.]]
File:MN Governor's Proclamation 1896-02-10.pdf annexing territory to Rouseau County, as published in the Rouseau County Times on February 21, 1896.]]
Elm Point, Minnesota, is a small uninhabited cape and a practical exclave of the United States in Lake Township, Roseau County, Minnesota, United States. It is surrounded on the west, south, and east by Lake of the Woods, and on the north by the Canadian First Nation community of Buffalo Point in southeastern Manitoba. Part of Elm Point is privately owned and part of it is state land{{cite web |url=http://gis.co.roseau.mn.us/link/jsfe/index.aspx |publisher=Roseau County, Minnesota |title=Roseau County GIS Public Map Service}} managed by the Department of Natural Resources as part of the Border Wildlife Management Area.{{cite web |title=Border WMA |url=https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/detail_report.html?id=WMA0038300 |website=Wildlife Management Areas |publisher=Minnesota Department of Natural Resources}} It is located southwest of the much larger exclave known as the Northwest Angle.{{cite gnis|643304|Elm Point, Minnesota}} There is a line of felled trees marking the international border,{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/49%C2%B016'00.0%22N+95%C2%B003'00.0%22W/@48.9975247,-95.2879495,564m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d49.266667!4d-95.05?hl=en|title=Google Maps}} which runs nominally along the 49th parallel, although in this area it runs slightly to the south{{cite web |title=Sheet E-58 |url=https://internationalboundarycommission.org/uploads/maps/19-49th_parallel_mb-mn/ibc_1266_e-58.pdf |website=Maps and Coordinates |publisher=International Boundary Commission}} due to 19th-century surveying errors.
In addition to Elm Point, there are a few small parcels of land located west of Elm Point but east of the contiguous land mass of Minnesota that extend up to {{convert|300|ft|m|-2}} south of the border, making them U.S. territory. One such area is Buffalo Bay Point.{{cite web|url=https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/516-northwest-angles-one-exclave-may-hide-another|title=516 – Northwest Angles: One Exclave May Hide Another|author=Frank Jacobs|work=Big Think|date=31 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112040251if_/https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/516-northwest-angles-one-exclave-may-hide-another|archive-date=2020-11-12|url-status=live}}
Jurisdictional confusion
There is some confusion as to whether Elm Point lies within Lake of the Woods County or Roseau County. The United States Census Bureau's block maps place it in Lake of the Woods County,{{cite web |title=Lake of the Woods County, Sheet 7 |url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/dc10map/GUBlock/st27_mn/county/c27077_lake_of_the_woods/DC10BLK_C27077_007.pdf |website=2010 Census - Block Maps |publisher=United States Census Bureau}} as do many maps published by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.{{cite web |title=2021 - 2022 Official Highway Map, Minnesota |url=http://www.dot.state.mn.us/statemap/2019/Frontside_2021.pdf |publisher=Minnesota Department of Transportation}} However, property taxes in the area are assessed by Roseau County, while the Lake of the Woods County GIS does not show any parcel data for the area.{{cite web |title=Assessor's GIS Parcel Viewer |url=https://beacon.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?App=LakeoftheWoodsCountyMN&PageType=Map |publisher=Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota}} A 1916 state plat book shows it as part of Roseau County.{{cite web |title=Roseau County |url=http://geo.lib.umn.edu/plat_books/stateofmn1916/counties/roseau.htm |website=Digitized State of Minnesota Plat Book 1916 |publisher=University of Minnesota John R. Borchert Map Library}}
The confusion appears to result from the wording of Governor David Marston Clough's proclamation dated February 10, 1896, which annexed the area to Roseau County.{{cite journal |title=Proclamation |journal=Roseau County Times |date=February 21, 1896 |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90059222/1896-02-21/ed-1/seq-1}} The boundary of the area to be annexed ran easterly along the Canadian border "to the Lake of the Woods; thence easterly, following the south meandered shore of said Lake of the Woods." From the point where the Canadian border intersects Lake of the Woods, the shoreline first runs west around Elm Point and then south before turning east, making the wording of the proclamation infelicitous. The proclamation, however, states that the territory annexed includes the area of Township 164 North, Range 36 West, and that its boundaries "followed and conformed to the United States Survey lines of townships," as was required by law at the time.{{cite web |last1=Statutes of 1895, Chapter 298 |title=An act providing for the enlargement of organized counties by attaching thereto and incorporating therein territory from an adjoining unorganized county or counties |url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1895/0/General+Laws/Chapter/298/pdf/ |website=Minnesota Session Laws |publisher=Office of the Revisor of Statutes}} Elm Point is within T164N R36W (see image at right).
See also
Notes
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Category:Canada–United States border
Category:Exclaves in the United States
Category:Geography of Minnesota
Category:Geography of Roseau County, Minnesota
Category:Border irregularities of the United States