‘It’s absurd’: US closes historic Border Road to Canadian traffic | Globalnews.ca

In the windswept Sweet Grass Hills lies Border Road, a 14-mile ribbon of hand-made gravel between the United States and Canada.

The shared road is on the Montana side, but Alberta maintains it.

North of the road sits Ross Ford. In the south, it’s Roger Horgus.

They are both in their 60s, but remember the childhood days going back and forth across the invisible line of play.

It was a generational thing. In 1990, National Geographic magazine presented the two families as examples of love and the world’s longest unprotected border.
No more.

In the era of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, with America’s concerns about drug traffickers crossing borders and illegal immigrants, the road will be closed to the Canucks starting this summer.

When that happens, the only member of Ford’s family free to cross the road will be his black and white border collie, Geordie.

“It’s unfortunate,” Ford, 64, said in an interview at his farm east of Coutts, Alta. “We are happy to enter the road without payment, I think about 80 years, before I was born.

“We have not been very close to our neighbors.

“Of course, they live in Montana and that’s not going to change — but we have this new obstacle.”

Horcus, 68, sits sipping coffee at the kitchen table on his farm near Sweet Grass, Mont., and nods toward his next-door neighbor, whom he’s known forever.

Horgus said: “When we were growing up, I wasn’t surprised if every other week we ran across the country to play, ride bikes, go horseback riding.

“(The road closures are a shame. I hate to see it because Canadians have taken good care of us and the road, with the conditions and all that.”

Horgus said US border patrol officials have told residents there has been an increase in illegal traffic, but he has seen no evidence.

A silver marker on the hill overlooking the Ford farm indicates the exact location of the boundary. In recognition of the 1908 Convention, it reads Canada on the north side of the sign and the United States on the south.

On a recent spring day, two US border patrol officers stopped in their cars on Border Road to chat.

Ford says the patrol is routine. But in the past, US officers pulled people over when a driver crossed to talk to a neighbor.

Soon, one road will now become two.

Ford said that a similar gravel road will be laid just meters away from Canadian land.

“In fact, the roads will be counted by the length of the road.

“And the border will be in the hole,” he said with a laugh.

Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said the province was told last year that changes were coming.

“We were informed by Homeland Security that they are making sure that this area and the rest of the American soil on the border will be enforced,” Dreshen said in an interview.

“Obviously, we did a process to make sure we could expedite this (route), we’re working with the County of Warner to make sure Alberta people (are) on the Canadian side of the border.”

Dreshen said $8 million has already been distributed. Work will begin in April and hopefully be completed by summer.

He said he understands the confusion many local residents may have.

“Regardless of the line on the map, you will have farmers on both sides of the border, you will have family friends on both sides of the border.

“I think it’s clear that it’s going to continue.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press