An international park celebrating the historically strong bond between Canada and the United States is doubling down on its mission amid turmoil from the trade war. Roosevelt Campobello International Park is home to the iconic red cottage where the 32nd U.S. president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, vacationed during the early part of the last century. The site on New Brunswick’s Campobello Island became an international park in 1964 and is the only park in the world jointly staffed, funded, and operated by two countries. “It’s particularly important, now more than ever, to get across that this park represents enduring friendship,” said site superintendent Jon Southern in an interview. A new trail, under the theme of friendship, made its debut in the park earlier this summer. The Witapehkewakoni-Awt/Friendship Trail has opened up about 400 hectares of land previously inaccessible to the public. The trail’s 520-metre-long elevated floating boardwalk was custom made to protect fragile bog and wetland ecosystems along the path. Work on Witapehkewakoni-Awtm – which means “Friendship Trail” in Passamaquoddy – took the better part of a decade to complete. “It’s our most ambitious project in recent years,” said Southern. “We actually thought of the name ‘Friendship Trail’ prior to all of the political issues between America and Canada with the tariffs because the park represents friendship, unity.” The park marked its 60th anniversary last year, recording over 260,000 visits — the site’s highest visitor tally for one season in more than a decade. Southern said visitor numbers are down about nine per cent so far this season, attributing the decline to a string of wet weekends earlier this summer. “What we’ve seen this year is a particular increase in Canadian French-speaking visitors,” he said. U.S. visitors have traditionally accounted for most of the park’s attendance, but Canadian numbers have grown since before the pandemic, from 13 per cent of total visitors pre-pandemic, to about 35 per cent now. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
