Remembering: The 49th Parallel

In 1818 British and US delegates agreed upon a border from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, along the forty-ninth parallel.

They further agreed that the Oregon territory would be a jointly occupied area, shared by the two countries.

But by the early 1840s Oregon was filling up with US citizens and pressure was rising.

In the 1844 election, James K. Polk ran and won on a ticket of promising to deliver the fifty-fourth parallel as a border for the west, or he would fight.

Luckily very few wanted a third war between Britain and the US, so negotiations started again.

On June 15, 1846 the two countries agreed upon the extension of the border along the forty-ninth parallel, all the way to the Strait of Georgia.

The border between the US and Canada was now secure all along its length. It has almost ever since been the longest unmilitarilized border in the world.