Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Point Roberts, WA

Point Roberts is an unincorporated census-designated place in Whatcom County that occupies the southern tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula, directly south of Vancouver, British Columbia — a piece of the United States cut off from the rest of the country by Canada.

The exclave was created by the Oregon Treaty of June 15, 1846, which fixed the U.S.–Canada border at the 49th parallel and left the peninsula's tip on the American side; Captain George Vancouver had named the point for his friend Henry Roberts.

Point Roberts can be reached from the rest of Washington only by driving about 25 miles (40 km) through Canada, or directly by boat or private airplane across Boundary Bay; its Tyee Drive crossing is the westernmost land border crossing in the Lower 48 states.

The 2020 census counted 1,191 residents in Point Roberts, down from 1,314 in 2010, within an area of about 4.9 square miles; the community uses ZIP code 98281 and is nicknamed 'Point Bob.'

Housing in Point Roberts is dominated by Canadian vacation homes: the 2010 census recorded 678 households but 2,068 housing units, only about a third of them occupied year-round, and the population swells to roughly 4,500 in the summer, most of them vacationing Canadians.

Many early settlers were Icelandic immigrants who arrived in the 1890s, and their descendants remain part of the community.

Its parks include Lighthouse Marine Park on Boundary Bay, Monument Park — built around Boundary Monument 1, the westernmost marker of the 49th-parallel border — Maple Beach, and the Lily Point Marine Reserve.

Point Roberts Primary School, run by the Blaine School District, teaches only kindergarten through third grade to about 15 students and is the smallest school in Whatcom County; from fourth grade on, local children ride a bus about 40 minutes through British Columbia to school in Blaine, crossing the international border four times a day.

The Point Roberts Marina Resort, the Point Roberts Golf & Country Club, and the Point Roberts Airpark all cater heavily to visitors from Greater Vancouver, while the International Marketplace is the exclave's only grocery store, and its post office and parcel shops are used so heavily by Canadians seeking a U.S. delivery address that mailbox rentals to Canadians reportedly outnumber local residents many times over.

When the Canada–U.S. border closed during the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to August 2021, Point Roberts lost an estimated 80 percent of its business and hundreds of residents left; a temporary ferry from Bellingham served as the community's lifeline during the closure.