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“When you cross the border from Stewart in to Hyder you have about 12 miles of Alaska and then it is right back into Canada on a road that dead ends at the old Granduc mine,” Mr. Loe says.

“We accept Canadian currency at par. I pay my hydro bills at the provincial office in Stewart. I have a 250 area code and I don’t want you to be offended, but no matter how tied we are to Canada there is not a single hair on my body that thinks I’m Canadian.

Not a single hair on my body thinks I’m Canadian

“I fought in Vietnam for my flag, and I would stand up and fight for the Canadian flag. But I’m 100% American. Although I do have lots of Canadian friends. Canadians are good people, eh.”

And Hyder is a good example of the close connection between our two countries and the tribal nature of national identity; of how a line on a map, drawn forever ago, and a Canadian border crossing staffed by some presumably bored Canadian Customs officers (there is no U.S. Customs in Hyder) can seem as wide as the Grand Canyon — even when the metaphorical price of admission is being counted in loonies.

The distance between the two communities that sit side by side occasionally becomes entangled in the affairs of the heart. Shawn Ackerman is a chef from Saskatchewan. He fell in love with the B.C. mountains and then he fell in love with a Texan. The proud Canadian and his red-blooded American girl, now his wife, purposefully picked a spot on the B.C. map where they could keep a foot planted in two countries.

“We found our house in Hyder first, so she could be up here and also be in the States,” Mr. Ackerman says. “We also have a house in Stewart, because it is so cheap to buy a house. But then we got married in Hyder. It is a little different over there, for sure. People have American accents and there are lots of guns and ammunition.