The Rangeley border patrol station has undergone an interesting transformation over the decades since it was first established in 1940. The original border station shared a building with the largest bank in town and was staffed by six agents from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. The primary role of the Rangeley border crossing station at the time was to process passengers and visitors as a secondary station between the states of Maine and New Hampshire, and the border those states share with the Canadian province of Quebec.
The training and education requirements for border patrol jobs available at the Rangeley border crossing station have changed since then. In 1949, the station closed because it is located in a heavily wooded and sparsely populated area that received very little border traffic. But, in the 1980’s, the station re-opened as a sub station with two full-time border agents. There was no border crossing at the time, so the agents’ primary role was to survey the 81 miles of land on the border via motor vehicles and snow mobiles usually. The area became a somewhat popular drug smuggling route during this time.
Finally, in 2009, a brand new border station was constructed in Rangeley and became a main border crossing station in the state of Maine.
Border Agent Duties at the Rangeley Border Station
The new state-of-the-art building consists of the latest technology in border protection and security. This includes various radar equipment and cameras among other things. Because this station is one of the newest border stations in the nation it has become a testing ground for new technology, equipment, and border protection strategies. The new station employs 25 border patrol agents, but has been built to accommodate up to 50 agents for emergencies in which more border protection would be needed.
The Rangeley area is still heavily wooded, mountainous, rural and does not have much vehicle traffic coming through, so most of the duties for border patrol agents involve inspecting the border via All Terrain Vehicles and snow mobiles- as the weather can be quite harsh during the Fall and Winter especially. Border patrol jobs at the station also involve working with local camp owners and residents in order to identify suspicious activity. Most of the border patrol job duties involve nabbing drug smugglers from the Canadian cities of Montreal and Ottawa, Ontario.