“At this point, I think we’re all almost feeling well, f--- it, this season’s a wash too,” said Caroline Stewart, the owner of Boundary Gallery & Gifts in Hyder.
Stewart’s gift shop, which draws tourists with her dichroic glass jewelry and locally made fudge, shut down when the border shut down in March 2020, and hasn’t been open since. The same has been true for Hyder’s other businesses — two hotels, two restaurants and a couple of other gift shops.
There are three other “exclaves” like Hyder along the border — two small, sparsely populated towns in the U.S., and one in Canada — which largely rely on an open border to carry out their businesses, go to school and even buy groceries.
But when the border shuttered at the start of the pandemic, residents of the exclaves were left to figure out how to stay afloat with their main source of business — tourism — cut off.
With vaccination rates on the rise in both the U.S. and Canada, locals were hopeful border restrictions would lift June 21 — offering the possibility of a semi-normal summer season. But on June 18 the Canadian government announced that restrictions would stay in place until at least July 21, a move that fueled frustrations in both countries.