Nighthawk–Chopaka Border Crossing
Former customs house at Nighthawk, WA, 1997
Location
CountryUnited States; Canada
Location
  • Similkameen Road / Nighthawk Road
  • US Port: Similkameen Road, Loomis, WA 98827
  • Canadian Port: 100 Nighthawk Road, Cawston BC V0X 1C3
Coordinates49°00′00″N 119°40′15″W / 49.000119°N 119.670875°W / 49.000119; -119.670875
Details
Opened1907
Can phone1 (800) 461-9999
Hours9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Website
US Canadian

The Nighthawk–Chopaka Border Crossing connects the town of Loomis, Washington and Cawston, British Columbia on the Canada–United States border. Similkameen Road on the American side joins Nighthawk Road on the Canadian side.

Railway

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 9 kilometres (6 mi) north of the crossing, washed out in a 1972 flood, cross-border rail service ceased permanently.[1]

Canadian side

Canadian border station at Chopaka, 1998

A customs office existed at Chopaka during the summer of 1861, before relocating to Osoyoos.[2] 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.[3] During the earlier years, a Keremeos officer would travel to Chopka to clear any livestock movements across the border.[4] The Similkameen office opened on the rail line a short distance north of the border in 1917 but closed in 1940.[2] In 1959, the Chopaka station was reopened at the road crossing, which is about 4 kilometres (2 mi) east of the rail crossing.[5] This road crossing existed by at least the early 1930s.[6]

US side

The customs office seems to have opened in 1907.[7] 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.[8]

Chopaka Road was parallel to the rail line and crossed the border. In 1952, the Nighthawk border station closed.[9] 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 one. Initially, a trailer at the border housed the inspection services. In 1962, the US built a small brick border station at this site.[10] Around this time, the US installed a locked gate on the Chopaka Road a mile south of the border.[11]

Averaging just 28 vehicles per day in 2009, the crossing was the least used land border in Washington state at the time.[12]

In 2012, a new facility, which employs advanced technologies, replaced the former customs house.[13]

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 125 miles (201 km) 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.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Liddicoat, Wallace L. (2001). "Okanagan Historical Society: Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway". www.library.ubc.ca: 89, 92 (87, 90).
  2. 1 2 Legg 1962, p. 234.
  3. ↑ Legg 1962, pp. 54, 138.
  4. ↑ "Keremeos Chronicle". www.library.ubc.ca. April 9, 1909. p. 1.
  5. ↑ Legg 1962, p. 54.
  6. ↑ "Official motorist's guide of British Columbia". www.library.ubc.ca. 1931. p. 50.
  7. ↑ "Hedley Gazette". www.library.ubc.ca. December 19, 1907. p. 1.
  8. ↑ "Grand Forks Sun". www.library.ubc.ca. November 15, 1929. p. 1.
  9. ↑ "Border Station Funds Sought". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. March 27, 1953.
  10. ↑ "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" (PDF). www.dhs.gov. October 23, 2009. p. 17.
  11. ↑ Briley, Ann (1964). "Okanagan Historical Society: Chopaka". www.library.ubc.ca: 114 (110).
  12. ↑ "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" (PDF). trac.syr.edu. August 26, 2011. p. 16 (13).
  13. ↑ "CBP: Recovery Act-Funded Land Port of Entry Opens at Nighthawk". www.cbp.gov. May 25, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Chapter 6: Washington State". United Divide: A Linear Portrait of the USA/Canada Border. The Center for Land Use Interpretation. Winter 2015.
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