International Peace Garden, North Dakota

The International Peace Garden is a park on the international boundary, whose 2,300 acre extends on either side of the line. It opened in 1932, to celebrate the best of the shared physical, cultural, and political terrain of the two neighboring nations. Though you must check with customs and immigration when you depart, at whatever country you depart into, there is no need to stop to get into the park, and once inside, you can cross the boundary freely – that’s the whole point. Beyond the looped drives with picnic areas, and vistas of rolling lawns, ponds, and woods, there are many unique features of the park, such as a carillion bell tower, a floral clock, the International Game Warden Museum, a 9/11 memorial, auditoriums, a music school, and a new visitor center with a café, gift shop, and cactus garden. These though are asymmetrical features of the park. The most remarkable aspect of the International Peace Garden is the way it is divided, exactly along the international boundary, along the 49th parallel. The symmetry starts with the entry gates, which project from footings in either nation and arch towards one another over the traffic island without touching. Past the entrance is the great lawn, with dual plaques commemorating good will and friendship between legislatures, and a view of the twin spires at the far end of the park, that draw you further in. Along the way the boundary manifests itself in many linear forms, including as a series of pools, flowerbeds, and a perfectly straight stream, with small waterfalls. At the west end of the gardens is the Peace Tower, a monumental concrete sculpture that looks like the twin towers, from a distance, but was completed long before 9/11, in 1983. In the shadow of the towers, further west down the 49th boundary, is a chapel, the only building in the Garden that is crossed by the line. It was opened in 1970, and is the nondenominational spiritual heart of the Garden. Its interior and exterior is symmetrically split by the international boundary. Even the organ’s keyboard is equally divided: the left keys in Canada, the right keys in the USA. Outside the back of the chapel, still heading west through the park, is a great granite monument erected by the International Boundary Commission in 2003, commemorating more than a century of work to, as the monument says: “Maintain at all times an effective boundary line between the Dominion of Canada and the United States…and to determine the location of any point of the boundary line which may become necessary in the settlement of any questions that may arise between the two governments.” Beyond that is the last boundary marker in the park, one of the more modern stainless steel obelisks, used since the 1980s to replace many of the damaged monuments along the line, as stainless steel is more resistant to bullets. Beyond it the vista line heads through the adjacent woods, and the 49th Parallel boundary continues its linear derive across the western half of the continent.

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CLUI photo
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CLUI photo
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CLUI photo