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Welcome to Back of the Napkin, musings from Serviette for the cultured world. Everything in this newsletter is connected to the Wild West. For instance, the exclave of Point Roberts, Washington—a modern Wild West of sorts.
On the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula, south of Vancouver, British Columbia, lies this cloistered secret (pop. 1238). Surrounded by the ocean, Point Roberts can be reached from the rest of the United States only by traveling 25 miles through Canada, or by boat or private airplane.
What a coincidence: a photo of the “loneliest house in the world” on Ellidaey Island, a rocky island south of Iceland’s Vestmann archipelago, is posted on social media seemingly every month.
A geographic aberration—Point Roberts was not permanently settled when the 49th parallel was drawn in 1846—means that its American residents are isolated, an issue particularly of late. The isolation and lack of infrastructure, including a pharmacy, has made it nearly impossible to live there.
Another geographic aberration you might be more familiar with is Death Avenue. New Yorkers now know it as the High Line. However, before the former freight railway was erected in 1934, the trains running along 10th and 11th avenues at street level were so dangerous that a band of men were recruited from western ranches to prevent casualties. They became known as the “West Side Cowboys of Death Avenue.”
Patrolling Death Avenue from 1846 onwards, the West Side Cowboys waved red flags by day and lanterns by night as they rode ahead of trains on 10th and 11th Avenues, working to prevent fatalities on these dangerous street-level tracks that had claimed numerous lives.
The last of them, George Hayde, made his final trip on his horse Cyclone in 1941, marking the end of this unique urban profession.
Launching Serviette in, some would argue, an overcrowded landscape of fragrance brands can feel like entering the Wild West. That is why building a community is so important. Our freshly ironed serviettes have arrived from the embroiderer, with our signature green logo stitched in the corner, like a lasso made by Lagerfeld.