It’s a geographic curiosity – a bit of US land at the top edge of Minnesota, disconnected from the rest of the state.

The Northwest Angle is known to local residents, people who love to fish – the region is famous for its walleye – and geography buffs.

It is accessible by land only through the Canadian province.

Now, someone has anonymously launched a petition urging the US to hand the land over to its northern neighbours.

“Make America great by correcting this critical survey error,” states the petition posted on 30 December on the White House “We the People” site, which allows citizens to petition Congress on issues that matter to them.

The petition is titled “Give Canada back the Northwest Angle located in Manitoba”.

The nub of Minnesota state is roughly 123 square miles (318 square km) and is farther north than any other part of the contiguous United States.

Living above the 49th parallel, Angleites – as local residents are known – are the northernmost American citizens, barring Alaskans. It can be reached by driving through Canada or by boat across the Lake of the Woods.

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Image caption

The Northwest Angle borders Canada’s province of Manitoba

The protrusion of land is due to a historic mapping mistake.

The US land lost in Canada

The island that switches countries every six months

When the American Revolutionary War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Britain and the US agreed on the new border based on a map maker’s error about the source of the Mississippi River, which was used to help draw the boundary.

The boundary line was redrawn in 1818 to address the snafu, shaping the Northwest Angle.

So far, the petition is just shy of 2,500 signatures, a far cry from the 100,000 signatures needed to get a response from the White House.

And at this point, the effort is being greeted with something of a shrug by Angleites.