The Big Twenty Township is an administrative division in Aroostook County

Aroostook County, Maine

Aroostook County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. In 2010, its population was 71,870. In land area, it is the largest county in the state and the largest U.S. county east of the Mississippi River. Its seat is Houlton...

 in northern Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

. It is one of the largest townships in Maine, and contains Estcourt Station, a village of four people that is the northernmost point in Maine. The township also contains the northernmost point in New England and one of the northernmost points in the continental United States.

Geography

The Big Twenty Township is made up of two separate survey township

Survey township

Survey township, sometimes called Congressional township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System, refers to a square unit of land, that is nominally six miles on a side...

s, T20 R11 and T20 R12 WELS. It borders Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 to the north, east, and west, and T19 R11 and T19 R12 WELS to the south. The borders of the township were settled on August 9, 1842, with the signing of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty. The treaty, named for US Secretary of State

United States Secretary of State

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

 Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...

 and United Kingdom

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 Privy Counsellor

Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...

  Lord Ashburton

Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton

Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton PC was a British politician and financier.-Background:Baring was the second son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, and of Harriet, daughter of William Herring...

, ended the Aroostook War

Aroostook War

The Aroostook War was an undeclared nonviolent confrontation in 1838/1839 between the United States and Great Britain over the international boundary between British North America and Maine. The compromise resolution win a mutually accepted border between the state of Maine and the provinces of...

 and also set the US–Canada border further west.

Population

The Big Twenty Township has fewer than 20 year round residents. The land is mainly used for logging, and the only roads that exist are logging roads; there are no state highways. Some of the land is owned by camp owners, and several camps straddle the US-Canada border.

Many of the people who visit Big Twenty Township are Canadians who have illegally crossed the border in search of cheaper food and gas. One such incident occurred in 2002, when one Michel Jalbert crossed the border in to save 20 cents a gallon on gas and was arrested and imprisoned. Some people even have property which straddles the border, and have received written consent from border patrol to cross the border when they want to avoid issues.