diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index fa6a08b..b78fac5 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ The following is the rough list of changes that went into different versions. I
 - Add USB_VID and USB_PID to CPPFLAGS only if the board is Leonardo.
 - Allow adding extra common dependencies (COMMON_DEPS) (https://github.com/gaftech)
 - Added ifndef ARDUINO_VAR_PATH for compiling for the attiny (https://github.com/danielesteban)
+- Strip extra whitespace from the `BOARD_TAG` variable
 
 ### 0.10.4 (2013-05-31) @matthijskooijman
 - Improved BAUD_RATE detection logic
diff --git a/arduino-mk/Arduino.mk b/arduino-mk/Arduino.mk
index ffe5e08..4f6651b 100644
--- a/arduino-mk/Arduino.mk
+++ b/arduino-mk/Arduino.mk
@@ -394,6 +394,9 @@ ifndef BOARD_TAG
     BOARD_TAG   = uno
     $(call show_config_variable,BOARD_TAG,[DEFAULT])
 else
+	# Strip the board tag of any extra whitespace, since it was causing the makefile to fail
+	# https://github.com/sudar/Arduino-Makefile/issues/57
+	BOARD_TAG := $(strip $(BOARD_TAG))
     $(call show_config_variable,BOARD_TAG)
 endif