#3: [08-Oct-05]

#1: [19-Feb-03]

22-Aug-2004 -- We took a road trip from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada to visit our daughters - one in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. and one in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This is one of fourteen successful confluence visits along the way.

We approached this confluence from the south after turning off Highway 2 at Rugby, North Dakota. Rugby honors its position as geographical center of North America with a cairn and the flags of Mexico, Canada and the United States at the intersection of Highways 2 and 3. Highway 3 took us north towards N49°, the Canadian border. The first visitor's account of getting to the confluence from the American side was helpful in our hunt. We turned west onto a gravel road 2.8 km south of the border. About 5 km along that road we turned north until we could go no further. A muddy trail paralleled the border about 723 meters south of it.

The crops between the trail and the trees along the border looked thick and healthy - we could not cross through them. However, a little west of W100° we found a fence running north and south that separated two fields. It had an area of weeds along it that would provide a pathway north. It had recently rained so the ground was muddy and the tall plants very wet. At the end of the walk we were muddy and wet too.

The confluence is in the row of trees that stretches for as far as we could see in an east/west direction along the border. As usual in a tree canopy, the GPS was difficult to zero, but Alan was finally able to do it despite the mosquitoes feasting on him. Each direction shows trees with a forest floor of wild plants, flowers, berries and fallen tree branches. There were deer hoof prints in the mud. The confluence is in Canada, 84 meters north of the actual border which is marked by nearby border marker # 713. Back in the van we headed out through the muddy trail, then the gravel roads to the pavement and towards the border crossing.

3.7 km west of the confluence, between the United States Customs and the Canadian Customs, is the entrance to The International Peace Garden. The idea for this 2,339 acre garden of peace and reflection was conceived by Ontario Horticulturist Dr. Henry J. Moore in 1928. It straddles the United States/Canadian border and is situated near the geographical center of North America. The welcoming cairn erected in 1932 reads:
"To God in His Glory, We Two Nations
Dedicate This Garden and Pledge,
That As Long As Men Shall Live,
We Will Not Take Up Arms Against One Another."

Fountains and a long waterway run along the border. Tall towers of peace stand on either side of the waterway, one in each country, at the west end. There is a floral clock, a bell tower that chimes every 15 minutes, a peace chapel, gazebos, formal gardens and sunken gardens, a New York World Trade Center memorial site, an interpretive center and a gift shop. In the extended park lands are hiking trails, lakes, a campground, picnic areas, an International Music Camp, an auditorium, a wildlife museum and much more. It has been an unseasonably cool summer and it was a shame to see that many of the flowers had been killed by frost two days earlier. Read more about The International Peace Garden.

The borderline with the U.S. is running about 83 m south of the Confluence. The Confluence is located about 4 km east of the International Peace Garden.