Sunday Afternoon Post: Between A Rock And...

This poor Virginia Pine (Pinus Virginiana) seems to be posing for a glamor shot in the latest publication of Rock Gardening monthly. 

Pinnacle Overlook, one of the most accessible and scenic view points in the central-Southern Appalachians!

The forest directly below the pine is Virginia, whereas the small town down there is in Tennessee.  The vantage point this was taken from was straddling Virginia and Kentucky.  Fun!

How To Tell A State Line Is Near

1. There will be a lot of ads for firework stores and/or "adult" stores.

2. The state which you are leaving tries desperately to catch your attention with tons of billboards noting local attractions.

3. The state which you are leaving makes absolutely no attempt to remind you that you were even there.

4. You see billboards for Pure Michigan, as long as you are east of the Mountain Time Zone.  Michigan tourism advertisements are among the most prolific of any region in the United States.  The signs are usually near a state line, hoping to catch long distance travelers. 

5. You will find massive plantings of whatever tree or flower the state is crazy over.  Within a mile of the state line to Florida along any of its entry points will be palm trees planted en masse.  They even make Georgia do it for them on the other side!

6. Out of absolutely nothing you see a line of nearly urban development, complete with high-rise buildings and even rollercoasters. 

I-15 northbound.

This would be Primm, Nevada, which rises almost like a mirage oasis out of the dusty, barren bed of Ivanpah Dry Lake.  The west's lower elevations in general are arid affairs, but this particular part of the Mojave Desert is literally nothing but sand:

It can have water after some heavy spring rains.  I've seen it once, I swear, but yes, that is mostly sand.  A lot of sand.

Yet there Primm arises, the development project of Primm Valley Resorts, complete with multiple gas stations, convenience stores, and three casinos.  Right across the line in the California sun sand would be a gas station with the highest lottery sales for California, just a short walk from the same sort of gas station for Nevada and its lottery.  On the other side of I-15 entering the state from Arizona is the town of Mesquite, which also arises with a heck of a lot of gambling (of superior quality to that found in Primm), albeit from another actual town of Littlefield, Arizona, both Mormon pioneer towns built in the second half of the 19th century alongside the gracious waters of the Virgin River.  Up north, along I-80, West Wendover, Nevada, does yet another developmental surge for the traveler.  Nevada is heavily dependent upon tourism and especially gambling and the state's residents do not hesitate to try to milk you for your worth as soon as legally possible. 

The Detroit Bottleneck

Much has been in the news lately about the building, or rather delays in building a new international crossing over the Detroit river between Michigan and Ontario.  The governments on both sides have agreed that the heavy amounts of commercial traffic over the existing crossing, the Ambassador Bridge, have necessitated the building of a second bridge to handle this traffic.  The Canadian government, in fact, has pledged 550 million dollars (at the nearly even present exchange rates) to make this happen.

Unfortunately, things have been slow in coming to fruition regarding this expansion.  At the forefront of the debate is one Manuel Maroun, who has launched an incredible campaign to make sure his proposed vision of the new crossing, a bridge parallel to the Ambassador, which he also owns.  He has repeatedly stalled projects which he is bound by contract to have completed by now for the state of Michigan, including the connection complex that links the bridge to Interstates 96 and 75.  He has released many advertisements compelling local voters to write in to their representatives back in Lansing to put an end to the Canadian plan for a new bridge under their financial control, claiming it a waste of taxpayer money, despite, uh, Canada putting up the money for it in the first place.  Mr. Maroun has actually been brought to court over the matter, but still insists on his double span as being the only acceptable plan to move forward with.  Canada has insisted that it needs a new bridge that can form links directly to limited-access highways and not onto the same surface streets that the Ambassador bridge currently empties onto.

So is a new bridge under the financial control of those pesky Canadians (who have a right to collect tolls to re-coup the cost of the bridge) really necessary?  Yes.  Absolutely.  The amount of U.S.-Canada trade that funnels through the Ambassador alone is equal to the total volume of trade engaged in between the United States and various countries, including high-volume partners like Japan.  Why is this the case?  A good percentage of Canadian population, industry, and commerce is concentrated in the corridor stretching from Windsor to Quebec City.  The St. Lawrence and lower Great Lakes valley are essentially the Canadian equivalent of the east coast megalopolis that stretches from Boston to Washington, D.C.  On top of this, the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Hamilton, Toronto, and downstream are notable for being inland sea ports capable of sending and receiving shipping from oceanic trade routes, while also serving as trade hubs within the North American continent.  That lovely Detroit River you see above might be freshwater and hundreds of miles inland, but it can function as well for shipping as New York Harbor or San Francisco Bay.  The fact of the matter is that Detroit is just too important of a trade corridor to be monopolized by one man.  Just take a look at this map.

Courtesy of Estafeta

It is an image of important trade corridors in U.S.-Mexico trade, and it still includes Toronto, despite being off the scope of the map.  Detroit not only funnels commercial traffic between the United States and Canada, but also Mexico!  Chicago might have won the historical battle to serve as the hub of travel between the great cities of the northeast and the interior, but Detroit has the advantage of sitting right at the gates between not two or even three but potentially dozens of nations.  For the moment, it has only a single rail tunnel and a very, very choked bridge which often has a solid line of trucks sitting on its span.  This is one bottleneck that needs to be widened, to the advantage of a little bit more than just the needs of one extremely wealthy man.

The Northern Frontier: By River

Much of the United States-Canada border is a straight line, cutting across mountains, prairies, and boreal forests.  The border itself is little more than a path of cleared land with the odd dirt road cut on either side.  Further to the east, however, the Great Lakes and associated rivers form the frontier between the two nations, often in relatively level terrain.  The rivers are almost always a lovely aquamarine, and usually have ships plying the waters.

As you can see, even in the more "defensible" parts of the border, there is little that would otherwise remind one that this is an international boundary.  The far side is Ontario, the near side is Marine City, Michigan.

State Borders

The European mindset that a river makes for a fine border has provided many of the state borders and shapes that mark the political map as of 2012.  Some other borders are marked by mountain ranges and high ridge lines.  In many cases though, straight lines were drawn over nearly every kind of terrain imaginable.  Nature can provide for a demarcation along the boundaries designated by political decisions where land-use policies are significantly different on either sides of the line.  Farms often suddenly give way to forests, for instance.  Out west, along the long, straight borders, one pretty much needs a sign and a few planted trees to know that a boundary has been crossed.

As you can see, there is a whole lot of nothing ahead in Texas, just as in the reverse direction, there is not much that breaks the vista in Oklahoma's panhandle.  This was taken along US-83 at the line between the two states.  The signs along the major interstates are often a bit more dramatic than a simple notification and subsequent "welcome to" sign that is seen here, and roadside attractions will tend to cash in on the change of  jurisdiction.  Along the back-roads like this, though, the differences are often superficial at best.  Border regions, unless they are hotly contested, usually have an ambivalent situation about them, little pockets of transition between cultures and landscapes that are often quite diverse and fascinating.