The Northwest Angle, the northernmost land of the forty-eight states, exists because Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary, negotiated at the Treaty of Paris of 1783 for British acceptance of a border extending from the “most northwesternmost point” of Lake of the Woods to the Boundary Waters. Despite later British opposition, this original Minnesota northern border remained inviolate. In 1818, a due south line connected it to the new 49° latitude western border, creating the Northwest Angle and Islands. That border also established the Arrowhead Region for the U.S., including two of the world’s great iron ranges, the Mesabi and the Vermillion.