Point Roberts is a community and pene-exclave of the United States situated on 3,136 acres (1,269 ha) at the southern tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula on the Strait of Georgia, about 32 miles (52 km) north-west of Bellingham and 15 miles (24 km) west of Blaine, Washington. Captain George Vancouver named Point Roberts after his friend Henry Roberts. The Strait of Georgia is about 150 miles (240 km) long and varies in width from 12 to 36 miles (20 to 58 km), lying between Vancouver Island to the west and the south-western mainland of British Columbia to the east. Along with the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound, it forms part of the Salish Sea. The Tsawwassen peninsula is bounded by the Fraser River delta to the north, the Strait of Georgia to the west and south, and Boundary Bay to the east. It is composed of sediments deposited during the Holocene epoch after the retreat of the Cordilleran ice sheet. These sediments—sand, silt, clay and peat—extend to a depth of 984 feet (300 m) over an irregular Pleistocene erosion surface.

The Tsawwassen peninsula is the traditional territory of the Tsawwassen First Nation, a Coast Salish people who may have lived in the area for over 4,200 years, based on the age of the oldest archeological site found. Point Roberts was also the site of summer fish camps for the Cowichan, Lummi, Saanich, and Semiahmoo tribes, but few people lived there year-round because of exposure to the weather. The first Europeans to see Point Roberts were members of Francisco de Eliza‘s 1791 expedition. Maps from Eliza’s explorations depicted Point Roberts as an island called Isla de Cepeda. In 1792 two ships under the command of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano sailed into Boundary Bay and confirmed that Point Roberts was not an island; it was renamed Punta Cepeda. They then sailed around Point Roberts and immediately encountered HMS Chatham, the second ship of Vancouver’s expedition. The two parties made contact and agreed to share information and work together in mapping the Strait of Georgia.

In 1846 joint occupation of the Oregon Country ended when Britain and the United States signed the Oregon Treaty, establishing the 49th parallel as the boundary between the countries from the Strait of Georgia to the Continental Divide in Montana. Only when the boundary was surveyed was it realized that Point Roberts would become an isolated part of the United States. In 1859 the United States established a military reserve at Point Roberts, though no military presence materialized, and Point Roberts subsequently evolved into a lawless haven for smugglers. In 1892 the military vacated the reserve, and in 1908 the land became available for homesteading. People of Icelandic descent moved to Point Roberts from Victoria and established a town on the western shore; some farmed and others worked for the salmon cannery at Lily Point. In 1908 the federal government bought 21 acres (8.5 ha) at the end of the peninsula for a light station that was never built; however, a lighted aid to navigation on a skeleton tower now overlooks the Strait of Georgia. The property was eventually transferred to Whatcom County and is now part of Lighthouse Marine Park, operated by Whatcom County Parks and Recreation. Read more here and here. Explore more Point Roberts and the Strait of Georgia here: