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lot of entries that take place every day,” Cox said in an interview with the Bea- con. “The northern border, you don’t get the volume but the instances seem to be more unique. They seem to be di erent. They’re more complex and require more digging into to really nd out what hap- pened and why.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security operates a Customs and Bor- der Protection site at Goat Haunt, with agents checking travelers’ passports along the trail into Glacier Park, about 200 yards from where the M.V. Inter- national lands at Upper Waterton Lake. The National Park Service also maintains law enforcement o cers at the adjacent ranger station.
The White sh Border Patrol station operates west of the Continental Divide while agents at the St. Mary Station keep watch from the east side through Glacier Park, including Goat Haunt.
Border agents face unique challenges when patrolling Glacier Park. They are prohibited from using motorized vehi- cles on parklands; instead, they roam the trails on horseback or foot. This year, the Department of Homeland Security added a boat to Upper Waterton Lake, allowing agents to travel freely at all hours of the day.
“When you get into the park, we’re limited. We want to be good partners with the National Park Service. We also
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want to respect the environment and respect the experience the tourists have when they come to the park,” Cox said.
“When we’re faced with challenges, we don’t just stop. We analyze it. We design, develop and implement tactics and tech- niques to overcome those. And we evalu- ate those and see if we need to adjust from there.”
The terrain requires agents to be extremely physically t and self-su - cient in the wild, and local agents can spend several days on foot in the wilder- ness, searching for clues of possible ille- gal entry or talking with backpackers.
Agents on the east side have a unique living situation. Those who are stationed at St. Mary live at a nearby housing com- plex near the Piegan Port of Entry. This includes families, who all live together in a compound detached from any sizeable communities. For food and other day- to-day supplies, families either travel to Cardston in Canada or Browning, 45 minutes away.
By living and working together, these agents build a strong bond that often translates into a strong team patrolling the border, Cox said.
“ I think we’ve gotten better at our sit- uational awareness – being able to eld patrols and gather information regarding what’s really happening in our area and what’s happening on the line,” Cox said.
“We all take it seriously. You want
James Cox, patrol agent in charge of the St. Mary Station, discusses the challenges of protecting the border.
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to make sure you’re doing the best you can with the resources you have to pro- tect the border. That’s really your focus. You really don’t want anything to come through on your watch.”
Indeed, not even the tranquil setting of Goat Haunt and its idyllic peace park can avoid the perils that plague the world in the 21st century.
Yet those working together inside this relatively small but prominent
stronghold believe in its transcendent in uence, as they did in the beginning.
“(Waterton-Glacier) has about it some- thing indescribable,” Montana Congress- man Scott Leavitt wrote in the 1932 bill creating the international park. “Perhaps the imminent presence which broods over it and which is universally felt may best be described as peace.”
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AUGUST 31, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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