Border Enclaves: "I don't want the world, I just want your half."*

StrangeMaps (aka BigThink) has once again posted a really interesting entry.  This one is about border enclaves, specifically, one border deviation at the Northern Italian-Swiss border.  Just in case you don't know what an enclave is, and I didn't, it is "a territory (or part of one) completely surrounded by another territory.  Usually (but not always) an enclave is also an exclave (i.e. part of a territory not connected to its 'mainland'), so both terms are often used interchangeably." (StrangeMaps)  The site also links several other examples of enclave maps at the end of the page, however, many of those reflect geographic eccentricities, such as a land mass separated by a river bend.

This anomaly, as SM terms it, is formed instead around a hydroelectric plant.  Below are two pictures taken from GoogleEarth and referenced on SM/BT.

Lago de Lei, Swiss-Italian border, enclave at top of page.
Click to enlarge.

Border enclave close-up.
Click to enlarge.

The authors then go on to raise some dam (ha! ha!) good questions-- namely, "So we have an Italian resevoir controlled by a Swiss dam.  Why?  And who gets the electricity?"  I did a little digging, and only uncovered an amusingly translated bit of company propaganda off the Kraftwerke Hinterrhein AG (Swiss dam controllers) site:  "Valley of you:  The Rhine is also a bit 'Italian " with photos of the dam and lake captioned "Valley Tank You" and "Valley dam you in fog".  After some time, I realized I had probably stumbled upon the same site the SM/BT authors were quoting, but it is sufficiently corporate and so blandly technical that it is not honestly that forthcoming.  No dirt here, sadly.

While I have to say that I have not yet solved the mystery of The Swiss Dam on Italian Soil (or the Secret of the Old Clock, my other current case) I may well find myself in the brotherhood of geeks who spend their spare time scanning international borders on GoogleEarth at a close resolution, hoping to find enclaves or other areas of border dispute.

*Here is the inspiration for my blog title:

They Might Be Giants, "Ana Ng", off of the album Lincoln (1988).  I never realized the video featured maps, as MTV was way too busy airing hair metal to screen TMBG in '88.  Shame.