By John Ritter USA TODAY TURNER, Mont. Until Sept. 1 1, a single federal inspector staffed one of the loneliest crossings on the 49th parallel. In the evening, the inspector put an orange cone in the road and went home. Maybe 20 cars and pickups a day pass the checkpoint. But since the terrorist attacks, two armed officers staffturner and other remote crossings from Maine to the Pacif ic round-the-clock. Inspectors still see the same local faces, but they open more trunks, ask more questions and request identification. A stretched-thin Border Patrol covers vast areas of the Canadian border between remote crossings. Fewer agents patrol 454 miles in Montana and North Dakota than patrol I 00 miles in the Blaine, Wash., sector south of Vancouver, an urban, largely forested area near major transportation routes. The Border Patrol in Blaine got 20 extra agents after Sept. I 1. The Havre, Mont., sector, which includes Turner, got five. At Blaine, the Border Patrol is installing 34 digital cameras on 60-foot Coles across 45 miles frequently used y smugglers. Hidden sensors pick up movements across the border. Roads and farms parallel much of the border, providing convenient stakeouts . But along portions of the border in Montana and North Dakota, there are no power sources to transmit sensor signals to dispatchers who can alert agents in the field. The Blaine and Havre sectors each have one plane and a pilot for air surveillance, although Blaines border responsibility is less than a quarter the lengt@ of Havre's. Blaine expects to get a helicopter and perhaps anotherpilot soon. "We dofft have as many omcers as wf need '" says Robert Finley, Havre sectoi chief "Montana has never been recognized as any significant threat." That tion may be chan percep , ging after Sept. 1 1. Some local residents sa@ the geography is ideal for a terrorist tc slip into the USA. "There's nothing tc stop them if they wanted to come," says Isabelle Getten, 8 1, a lifelong Turner resident. '7here's miles and miles with nothing between the ports. The whole problem is nobody watches it." But Dan Hutton, who farrns and raises cattle along the border 7 miles east of the crossing, says a terrorist or smuggler entering illegally would be spotted in daytime, and at night dogs would bark. "it wouldiyt be that easy," Hutton, 46, says. "They'd be noticed right away. Everybody is watching." Finley says Hutton is "being rather optimistic about that. You can basically walk across or drive across the border anywhere you wanted to. If someone was very intent on coming across, it wouldrft be difficult." Border authorities rely heavily on sheriffs and police. Agents try to stay on a first-name basis with local farmers and ranchers near the border. "When they see suspicious vehicle tracks, they let us know about it," says Ronald Kohlman, Customs port director at Turner. Says Steve Reed, a farm equipment dealer here: "You see a strange car drive through or somebody strange in town, and everyone gets real alert. They tell people and get hold of the sheriff."

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