As early as 1874, a customs officer patrolled the boundary from the Kootenay River eastward to the Alberta border.

In 1902, the office moved to Gateway (on the east bank of the Kootenay at the border) a few months before the track of the Great Northern Railway (GN) advanced northward through the location.

[1][2] Initially, the Canadian customs house was immediately south of the border, before the building was moved a quarter mile by flatcar into Canada.

For years, the customs officer drove through Montana to reach the location, because no road existed on the Canadian side.

[6] During the 1940s, the Roosville crossing was open 8am to 6pm in winter and 8am to midnight in summer, handling about six cars daily.

[13][14] The present Roosville facility was opened in 1991 and the service extended to 24 hours per day.

[16] The early border patrol history is unclear, but assumedly the US mirrored the establishment of a permanent post in the late 1890s.

During Prohibition in the United States, GN freighthoppers would smuggle liquor southward through Gateway.