Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Borders

  • Counting West Virginia, Day 2 (Progress)

    The rain that began the previous afternoon continued all night. It lifted, however, just as we began the first full day of our adventure. I probably would have headed to Pittsburgh’s two famous funiculars, the Duquesne Incline and the Monongahela Incline had I been alone. However I had my older son with me so I…

  • Counting West Virginia, Day 1 (Let’s Begin)

    I don’t feature the most obvious geo-oddities of the United States anymore unless I plan to actually visit them in person. Perhaps a few longtime Twelve Mile Circle readers noticed the foreshadowing when I discussed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia a few days ago. Maybe others saw photos I began to post on the…

  • Northern Panhandle of West Virginia

    Anyone looking at a West Virginia map would immediately notice its northern panhandle. It rose high above the rest of the state like a flagpole. This narrow splinter ran 64 miles (103 kilometres) due north, wedged tightly between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Its width also narrowed sometimes to only 4 miles (6 km). Four counties occupied…

  • Counting Border Crossings – Updated

    Several years ago, way back in November 2009, Twelve Mile Circle published an article called Counting Border Crossings. It revealed a new way to track travels suggested by loyal reader Jon Persky. Many people count nations, states, provinces, département, territories, counties or whatever. Jon’s method counted a place only when an adventurer traversed each border…

  • Digging for Minerals

    A mine is a hole in the ground owned by a liar (attributed to Mark Twain). I began some initial planning for a brief county counting trip to West Virginia that I hope to undertake in a couple of months. Examining potential routes, I noted a county called Mineral that I would hit in some…

  • Where’s Waldo?

    I selected US Route 23 through Ohio as we drove back from Michigan. This would have been a long detour in normal circumstances. However I wanted to count a few new counties so I cut through a quiet slice of the state instead. So hours passed, boredom hovered nearby and I invented little non sequiturs…

  • Brought Home from the Mexican War

    Texas claimed its independence from Mexico in 1836 as a result of the Texas Revolution. It became a sovereign nation. Even so, Mexico considered Texas part of its rightful territory. Texas faced many difficulties during its early years as a new country as it struggled to keep going and it pushed to join the United…

  • Michigan, Part 5 (Do Overs)

    A Simple Observation I checked the Twelve Mile Circle dashboard this morning. The 1,276th article posted on Wednesday. I still cannot believe I came up with so many different topics. However, I do know that my writing evolved since that initial post on November 6, 2007. Early articles certainly contained few words. Now I delve…

  • Last Places in Asia

    The second time I searched on the exact phrase the “Last place in [geographic area] to”… while leaving the remainder of the statement blank, I focused on countries in Asia. I knew it would be more difficult than the examination of England. However, I didn’t figure it would be nearly impossible. Many countries produced not…