Nighthawk–Chopaka Border Crossing

In April 1907, the rail head of the VV&E, a Great Northern Railway subsidiary, advanced westward across the border. A modest train service operated over the following decades. When the Armstrong bridge, which was about {{convert|9|km|0}} north of the crossing, washed out in a 1972 flood, cross-border rail service ceased permanently.{{cite journal | url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/ohs/1.0132240#p88z-4r0f |last=Liddicoat |first=Wallace L. |title=Okanagan Historical Society: Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway |year=2001 |pages=89, 92 (87, 90) |website=www.library.ubc.ca}}

Image:Canadian_border_station_at_Chopaka_BC.jpg

A customs office existed at Chopaka during the summer of 1861, before relocating to Osoyoos.{{sfn|Legg|1962|p=234}} The next office opened in 1907 for railway traffic but relocated to the Keremeos preventative station the following year. That office closed in 1917 but reopened in 1940.{{sfn|Legg|1962|pp=54, 138}} During the earlier years, a Keremeos officer would travel to Chopka to clear any livestock movements across the border.{{Cite web | url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/kerechro/1.0310059#p0z-4r0f:%22Chopaka%22 |page=1 |title=Keremeos Chronicle |date=April 9, 1909 |website=www.library.ubc.ca}} The Similkameen office opened on the rail line a short distance north of the border in 1917 but closed in 1940.{{sfn|Legg|1962|p=234}} In 1959, the Chopaka station was reopened at the road crossing, which is about {{convert|4|km|0}} east of the rail crossing.{{sfn|Legg|1962|p=54}} This road crossing existed by at least the early 1930s.{{Cite web | url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/bcbooks/1.0372919#p49z-5r0f |page=50 |title=Official motorist's guide of British Columbia |year=1931 |website=www.library.ubc.ca}}

The customs office seems to have opened in 1907.{{Cite web | url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/xhedley/1.0179810#p0z-2r0f:%22Chopaka%22 |page=1 |title=Hedley Gazette |date=December 19, 1907 |website=www.library.ubc.ca}} For many years, the Nighthawk trail was popular for liquor smuggling during Prohibition in the United States. In 1929, when border patrols and their propensity to fire weapons increased, the smuggling activity moved farther eastward.{{Cite web | url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/xgrandforks/1.0380160#p0z-3r0f:%22Chopaka%22 |page=1 |title=Grand Forks Sun |date=November 15, 1929 |website=www.library.ubc.ca}}

Chopaka Road was parallel to the rail line and crossed the border. In 1952, the Nighthawk border station closed.{{cite news |title=Border Station Funds Sought |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19530327&id=KC9WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FuYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7088,3682648&hl=en |agency=Associated Press|publisher=The Spokesman-Review|date=March 27, 1953}} The location of this station is unclear but it may have been back from the border at the Nighthawk settlement to handle both road and rail traffic. The opening date of the existing road border station is unclear, but likely predated the Canadian station. Initially, a trailer at the border housed the inspection services.{{cn|date=April 2022}} In 1962, the US built a small brick border station at this site.{{Cite web | url=https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/cbp_30_day_review.pdf#page=17 |page=17 |title=30-Day Review of Spending by U.S. Customs and Border Protection under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for Construction of Land Ports of Entry |date=October 23, 2009 | website=www.dhs.gov}} Around this time, the US installed a locked gate on the Chopaka Road a mile south of the border.{{cite journal | url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/ohs/1.0132210#p113z-4r0f:%22Chopaka%22 |last=Briley |first=Ann |title=Okanagan Historical Society: Chopaka |year=1964 |page=114 (110) |website=www.library.ubc.ca}}

Averaging just 28 vehicles per day in 2009, the crossing was the least used land border in Washington state at the time.{{Cite web | url=https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/library/P5826.pdf#page=16 |page=16 (13) |title=Department of Homeland Security: Use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for Construction of Land Ports of Entry |date=August 26, 2011 | website=trac.syr.edu}}

In 2012, a new facility, which employs advanced technologies, replaced the former border station.{{Cite web | url=https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/recovery-act-funded-land-port-entry-opens-nighthawk?_ga=2.14032446.827895723.1650917720-1242192895.1650917720 |title=CBP: Recovery Act-Funded Land Port of Entry Opens at Nighthawk |date=May 25, 2012 |website=www.cbp.gov}}

The area west of the station is the most remote part of the contiguous US border, passing through the Cascade Mountains. The next border crossing is {{convert|125|mi|0}} westward at Sumas–Huntingdon Border Crossing. However, many hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail cross between North Cascades National Park and Manning Park without reporting at the nearest official port of entry as legally required.{{Cite web |url=http://www.clui.org/section/united-divide-a-linear-portrait-usacanada-border-5 |title=Chapter 6: Washington State |website=United Divide: A Linear Portrait of the USA/Canada Border |publisher=The Center for Land Use Interpretation |publication-date=Winter 2015}}

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• List of Canada–United States border crossings

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Legg |first=Herbert |title=Customs Services in Western Canada, 1867–1925 |publisher=The Creston Review Ltd |year=1962}}

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Category:Canada–United States border crossings

Category:1907 establishments in British Columbia

Category:1907 establishments in Washington (state)

Category:Buildings and structures in Okanogan County, Washington