I enjoyed filling in newly captured counties on my county counting map as a result of the recent Dust Bowl trip. The newly drawn map pleased me immensely, a nice block of color added to a previously-empty quadrant. Unfortunately I left behind a couple of doughnut-hole counties that I’ll probably never capture. That’s fine. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m oddly at peace with the thought of never capturing every single one of the 3,143 counties and county-equivalents in the United States.
But Lincoln County, Colorado stood-out in particular as I shaded all the blocks.
I noticed that it had a mirror-image, or backwards, or perhaps a dyslexic letter “L” in appearance. It’s also the first letter in Lincoln. I’m not sure why I found that remarkable or amusing, and I’m not sure why anyone else should care either. Nonetheless it sparked an odd quest to see if I could find other places shaped like the first letters in their names.
Gimme Some LOV
There are several recognizable examples at the State level. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles noted one such instance right on its license plate. The state’s shape resemblance to the letter “O.”
In addition lots of schoolchildren learn that Vermont resembles a “V” to distinguish it from New Hampshire when memorizing the states. Additionally, some say Louisiana looks a lot like an “L.”
I put all of my little discoveries, both at the state and county levels, onto a single map.
You should feel free to open the map in a new tab and explore my finds. Alternately, you can continue to read the article and I’ll provide a few more highlights with links directly to appropriate corners of the map.
It struck me that Louisiana + Ohio + Vermont = L-O-V. It’s too bad that the United States doesn’t have another state beginning with E to the east. Then we could get a little LOVE. The best I could imagine might be Prince Edward Island if we could convince Canada to give it up, drop the Prince part and start it with Edward, then bulldoze the island into a shape more reminiscent of an E. I wonder if Brent, 12MC’s self-anointed “obligatory Canadian” might arrange a swap? Maybe Canada could trade PEI for a very thin strip of equivalent acreage along the extended border through the western half of the continent? I’m kidding of course. No offense implied or intended to the fine citizens of Canada.
The Letter L
Actually another Lincoln formed a much better L than the one in Colorado. Lincoln County, Wyoming at least faced the proper direction. I also found lesser examples in Lafayette County, Florida (map) and Lake County, Oregon (map)
The Letter P
You might have to bend the rules a little to see this one. Polk County, Arkansas doesn’t have a little cut-out circle. Nonetheless, the average viewer should still be able to interpret this as the letter “P” without too much effort. A similar situation exists in Perry County, Alabama (map).
And the Rest of the Counties
Setting aside that Rhode Island no longer has any functional counties — albeit they’re still used for U.S. census purposes — I think my favorite might be Newport. To me, it resembled a lower-case letter “n” written in a cursive script. Maybe? Just a little?
Other examples requiring a bit of creative imagination would include the “R” of Roberts County, South Dakota (map) and the sideways-“T” of Tulsa County, Oklahoma (map).
Thank goodness for the circular towns of Georgia
Many 12MC readers know about the numerous towns in Georgia with an “O” shape so unusual in other places. I figured I could find at least one town beginning with the letter O that had retained its original boundaries through the last couple of centuries. It was harder than I imagined. Annexations have changed many of their borders to the point where arcs have softened or have been erased. Oliver, Georgia remained pretty faithful though.
Others mostly intact O-towns in Georgia included:
- Ochlocknee (map)
- Offerman (map), albeit with a nub
- Omega (map) although it would be infinitely more fascinating with an ?mega shape.
I wondered if any of the formerly circular towns had annexed pipestems to create b’s, d’s, p’s or q’s but I got bored and lost interest I decided to leave something behind for the 12MC audience to discover on its own.
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