I mentioned a semi-practical exclave in Australia a few days ago. This was a spot in New South Wales where a resident in an automobile could exit his neighborhood without ever leaving NSW. However, he could return only via Queensland. I noted somewhat tongue-in-cheek that the “…situation becomes very special, perhaps unique, meaning I didn’t bother looking for any other occurrences: the curious case of a semi-practical exclave… it’s a practical exclave going in one direction but not in the other.“
I was too lazy to look for other instances and laid it out there as a somewhat unstated challenge. Of course that made it certain that a loyal follower of the Twelve Mile Circle audience would find an example. An even better example.
USA – Canada
Let’s give some credit to “Voyager9270” who posted a comment in response: “There is an international version of the semi-practical exclave you describe above in Beebe Plain, Vt. and Stanstead, Quebec.” Sure enough, Voyager9270 was absolutely correct.
Canusa Street / Rue Canusa (Québec Route 247) runs directly along the border between the United States (Vermont) and Canada (Québec). This section stretches for about a kilometre. It curves further into Canada to the east and then it terminates at a T-intersection with Beebee Plain Road to the west. There, one encounters a border station.
Thus, a U.S. citizen on the Vermont side of Canusa Street lives in an international semi-practical exclave arrangement. It also comes with an added level of inconvenience. Drivers can arrive from the rest of the United States without a problem. The right side of Canusa Street is completely within the United States.
Leaving one’s home is another issue. Turning left onto Rue Canusa from a driveway in Vermont, heading back to the rest of the United States, places a driver on the Québec side of the road. This didn’t use to be a problem in the days before 9-11. Back then this border town loosely formed a single community. Now, however, a driver from the Vermont side of Canusa Street needs to clear a border station in order to re-enter the United States.
A couple of other interesting albeit completely irrelevant features I uncovered.
- Beebe Plain is named for the town’s founder, Zeba Beebe, which I though was a great name.
- Canusa is quite obviously a portmanteau of Canada-USA, and loyal readers know I loves me a good portmanteau.
A Pattern Forms
There I was. I felt compelled to search for additional semi-practical exclaves now that I’d been armed with the knowledge that perhaps they might not be all that unusual after all. However I’d also figured out a secret pattern that I could use to identify them. I should look for places where the border ran straight down the middle of a road. Not every property along the line would form a semi-practical exclave but it would certainly increase the odds. I added a corollary. Look for dead-end streets that branched from the border road that might create entire semi-practical neighborhoods.
There aren’t very many geo-oddity blogs. We’re a pretty small community. Not surprisingly, my search began to cross paths with the Basement Geographer. He’d already posted a couple of similar articles dealing with borders strung down the middle of roads: Bisected and Bilateral: Streets Shared By Two Countries, Part I (The Americas) and Bisected and Bilateral: Streets Shared By Two Countries, Part II (Europe and the Middle East).
I didn’t want to tread on ground already covered even if I was taking a slightly different tack. So go read those articles because they’re great. I’m sure you could use them to find lots of semi-practical exclaves at those locations while you’re at it.
That left me with the challenge of finding roads overlain upon borders in places not already featured. I did manage to find a couple.
England – Wales
The situation occurs on the border between England and Wales in Saltney, appropriately enough along Boundary Lane. This means “that houses on the west side of the street are in the Flintshire County Council area and in the North Wales Police jurisdiction, while those on the east side are in the Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority area and in the Cheshire Police jurisdiction.”
Not every property along Boundary Lane qualifies as a semi-practical exclave. Many connect to other roadways that anchor them to their homelands. In England, Stanley Park Dr. and its various branches form a semi-practical exclave. In Wales, streets such as Larch Way, Douglas Place, Cwrt Terfyn seem to fit the definition as well.
Kansas – Missouri
Kansas City might be the most promising location, though. The dueling Kansas Cities, one in Kansas and one in Missouri, blend together almost seamlessly along State Line Road (map).
State Line Road hugs the boarder for an astounding 12.5 miles (20 kilometres) unbroken. This creates probably hundreds of properties that would qualify as semi-practical exclaves.
Here is one easy example. It’s an entire apartment complex on the Missouri side of the line. State Line Road might be the longest urban road split down the middle by a border (meaning I didn’t bother looking for any longer occurrences).
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