Little interest in returning of Minnesota land to Canada

The Northwest Angle — the bit of land on Lake of the Woods that gives Minnesota its northern tip on the map — was never meant to be ours.

The story goes that that an old surveying error made the Angle the only part of the continental U.S. north of the 49th parallel (A Mankato historian insists it was a cartography error).

A petition that tried to get the government to consider returning the land to Canada gained some steam online last month (or at least news outlets like this one gave it attention).

But the petition failed miserably, falling more than 96,000 signatures short of its goal, as the Forum News Service’s Brad Dokken points out.

For now, the people living on the Angle will remain stuck to Canada, having to drive through the country, or take a boat or plane, to access their official country of residence.