Beebe Plain, Vermont

For the Canadian side of this binational town, see Stanstead, Quebec.

Canusa Street runs through the middle of Beebe Plain, dividing the Vermont and Quebec sides of the village.

Beebe Plain, Vermont is a small village (part of the town of Derby) situated on the border between Canada and the United States. The border runs up the middle of Canusa Street, and is also the border between Memphrémagog Regional County Municipality, Quebec and Orleans County, Vermont.

Part of a group of small border villages which includes Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec, Beebe Plain is located near Lake Memphremagog and just west of Quebec Autoroute 55 (US Interstate 91) between Newport and Magog. Beebe is home to 975 Canadians (1991) and an equally small number of Americans.

Geography

Local legend claims that a group of rather drunken surveyors, when given the task of determining the United States-Canada border line in the region (nominally at 45.00°N), decided to place the border right through the centre of the village along what is now Canusa Street.

Industry

Beebe granite or "Stanstead Grey Granite" is famous for its use in architectural design; the production of granite from the region may well be the largest industry, with much of the stone being used in the construction of tombstones and memorials.

History

The village was founded circa 1789 by Zeba Beebe of Connecticut. The Haskell Library (106-year-old Romanesque building) is in both Canada and the United States. As you walk in you are in the U.S. and by the time you are at the desk you are in Canada. No word on where the international books are kept.

A former rail line which once joined Magog to Beebe before crossing the US border was abandoned and removed by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1989–1991; the former right-of-way remains open for recreational use.

See also

• Derby Line, Vermont
• Stanstead, Quebec

External link

• Boston magazine — Danger at our door

45°0.3202′N 72°8.4661′W