St. Pamphile Border Crossing, Maine

This border crossing at St. Pamphile, Quebec is the only crossing on this 65 mile stretch of border known as the Southwest Line. Like the four other crossings on this remote stretch of northeastern Maine/Quebec boundary, it is used nearly exclusively by the logging industry, and on the US side, enters directly on to the private dirt road network within the North Maine Woods. On the Canadian side are logging yards, for storing and processing the timber. The boundary line here, on the northwest edge of Maine, reflects one of the fundamental paradoxes of this border. On one hand, this region is a remote logging wilderness and the cold, northern edge of the USA. On the other hand it is the warm, southern edge of Canada, some of the best farm country in the nation, along the fertile St. Lawrence basin. On the US side is the woods, accessible from below only by private commercial dirt roads. On the Canadian side, the land is divided into long narrow farms, within a network of evenly spaced public roads.