Champlain, Chazy, Mooers to the Canadian Quebec Border

Chazy is a small village on Lake Champlain about 6 miles south of the border. Champlain is named after Samuel de Champlain, (1567-1635), the French explorer who explored the Saint Lawence River valley then found a lake which now bears his name too.

Champlain is the last village in NY State before customs on the Quebec Canadian Border. Here our Adirondack Northway, I-87 becomes Provincial 15 and will take you into Montreal, Canada. As far as roads go, our Interstates are far better designed and maintained than the Canadian equivalents. The last time I was there was in 2006. US 9 leads to some extra border crossing lanes now, and there are a couple duty free stores on its last mile. There is a shopping plaza in Champlain just east of the exit on US 11. Though even in the country, commerce tends to favor the town over the city/village. NY State has a lot of problems due to very high taxes and regulations that seemed to have really affected the rural parts more than the urban. Even in the midst of the 2009 budget "crisis", the state managed to boost spending over all by 10%. But anyone can tell you, it's NYC and their metro area that call the shots for the rest of the state.

Though Mooers, west of Champlain where NY 22 crosses US 11, is better off. The border towns depend on cross border tourism and trade and that has been throttled by stricter border controls at the once laid back and numerous Upstate New York crossings into Quebec. To be honest, I haven't been that way for quite a while, and maybe the stronger Loon, or Canadian dollar, has brought more Canadian shoppers and tourist back in. But it seems ironic that they should be trying to control our Canadian border when the other one seems wide open. Actually, the extra strength of the Canadian dollar versus ours, almost parity, has caused a surge of Canadian tourists and shoppers into the north country lately, which has been good for local businesses.