Editor's Note: This story details how two members of the CNN Special Investigations Unit reported a story about controversial plans to spend $31 million to enhance two remote crossings on the border between the United States and Canada.



The road to the border was so quiet it was safe for Drew Griffin to sit in the middle of it.



SCOBEY, Montana (CNN) -- We were driving through some of the most remote country in the United States, chasing a story that seemed hard to believe.



The Department of Homeland Security had announced it was spending $31 million to enhance and upgrade two remote border crossings -- just 12 miles apart -- on the border between Montana and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The spending was lauded by Montana's two senators, even though only an average of 22 cars a day traveled through these border posts.



We hopped a plane from Atlanta, Georgia, to Billings, Montana, and then headed to Scobey and Whitetail. The six-hour drive took us through some of this nation's most beautiful country into the high plains of the Missouri River Region. It was a drive punctuated with glimpses of cows and antelopes, but few people.



In fact, Burl Bowler, editor of the Daniels County Leader newspaper, which serves the border towns, advised us where to stop for gas en route, so we wouldn't run out and then really be in trouble.



Besides seeing a part of the country where Lt. Col. George Custer took his last stand, there was the added benefit (sorry CNN management) of having no phone or Blackberry access. In that respect, it was a peaceful drive.



When we got to Scobey, the few people we encountered couldn't have been nicer. Everyone we passed stopped, said hello, or waved. But encountering people was the problem -- and in fact, the story: We just didn't encounter that many. Certainly not at the border, where we stood and even sat in the middle of the road to show viewers how few people travel to and from Canada here.  Watch just how quiet the border crossing was »



The Scobey border crossing itself seemed perfectly adequate. But the Department of Homeland Security had warned its agents not to allow us inside, so we don't know what the interior is like. If we came in, we would be too disruptive, one government spokesman had informed us. In Scobey, that claim seemed a little far-fetched, since there wasn't anything going on here -- disruptive or otherwise.



On the Canadian side, farmer Marc Chabot, a U.S. citizen whose family has farmed the area on both sides of the border for generations, said he was grateful for the money his senators -- Democrats Max Baucus and Jon Tester -- steered to northeast Montana. But, he said, like others in the community, he gasped when he learned of the plan to spend $31 million expanding two border crossings that are rarely used.



"It would be wiser spent on something more useful to the public generally," he told us, adding that come winter, the average of 20 cars crossing a day in Scobey drops to almost none.



Editor Burl Bowler told us the area could certainly use stimulus money for jobs, but not at the border. We asked both Bowler and Chabot about the possibility of terrorists creeping across the frontier.



Both said that after the attacks of September 11, 2001, everyone needed to be more mindful of the porous border. But Chabot said the government had the area fairly well covered. "Trust me, they know we are here right now," he said.



And a massive new building costing more than $15 million in Scobey, Montana, wasn't exactly a deterrence to someone set on harming the United States, he added. Chabot joked that any stranger in the area certainly would not be a stranger long, since everyone knew everyone -- a point echoed by Bowler, who pointed out that while he hadn't told many people that CNN was coming to town, everyone seemed to know it anyway.



In Whitetail, it was even quieter
How many miles apart are they? How much distance is between crossings? How much crossings does Laredo get a day? what will the money go to Who planned to spend $31 million? How much does DHS plan to spend? How many crossings a day do they get?
12 12 miles 22 cars a expanding two border crossings that are rarely used. The Department of Homeland Security $31 million 22 cars a
question: How many miles apart are they?, answer: 12 | question: How much distance is between crossings?, answer: 12 miles | question: How much crossings does Laredo get a day?, answer: 22 cars a | question: what will the money go to, answer: expanding two border crossings that are rarely used. | question: Who planned to spend $31 million?, answer: The Department of Homeland Security | question: How much does DHS plan to spend?, answer: $31 million | question: How many crossings a day do they get?, answer: 22 cars a