Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Borders

  • Border Pirates

    I’d always thought of piracy as a 17th Century anachronism. Then things got weird off the coast of Somalia a few years ago. Even so I considered it a distant condition borne of a failed state two oceans away. Recent reports of North American pirates have simply bewildered me. I never imagined it existed outside…

  • Playing Both Sides of the Street

    Dinosaur that I am, I still get a print copy of the newspaper each morning. We’ve laughed about that before. However, it’s an old-school habit I’ll likely not break until the publisher itself gives up on the media. I’m no Luddite and I’ve left behind a huge digital wake as I’ve cruised the Intertubes. Nonetheless…

  • What Crosses an Airport Runway?

    The world of geo-oddities extends even to airport runways, and I’ve uncovered several curiosities over the past several days. The areas served by airports don’t always confine themselves to neat, tidy spaces. Oftentimes transportation resources represent a cooperative spirit between neighbors as they band together to meet a common need. Sometimes it’s just the opposite,…

  • That Confounding Trivia Question

    UPDATE: THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. THEY ANNOUNCED THE CORRECT ANSWER AS STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT. SEE COMMENTS BELOW FOR ISSUES MANY PEOPLE HAVE WITH THIS ANSWER. People searching for the answer to a specific trivia question are hammering the Twelve Mile circle website. I’ve seen dozens of search engine queries and I’ve received several email messages from…

  • A Town’s Odd Streets and Enclaves

    Geo-oddities exist everywhere. You just have to look for them. I came across an interesting situation in Bothell, Washington, fascinating in its own right but leading to a confluence of events even more unusual. So the situation begins with the city’s placement directly atop a boundary line separating King County from Snohomish County. That’s hardly…

  • For Aficionados of Counties

    I know there are several regular readers of Twelve Mile Circle who are fascinated with the county level of government in the United States. Some of you are county counters, others of you are county highpointers, and still others might be county radio hunters. All of you are aficionados of this phenomenon of one sort…

  • Eruvin

    Have you ever posted something with a little trepidation? Perhaps feeling there’s a likelihood that you’re going to screw it up? I’m just going to start this off right away by providing an upfront apology to anyone of the Jewish faith. I’ll do my best to focus on geography. Hopefully a knowledgeable readership will assist…

  • Charting the Split

    I recently recorded a question of amazing specificity, what I’d call a hyper-local geographic oddity that’s probably of interest only to a handful of people. Fortunately I’m one of those very few souls and maybe you are too. I’ll tie it in with a little history to widen the audience just a bit, so stick…

  • Canada’s International Border(s)

    So a burning question keeps coming up on the site. “What is Canada’s only international border?” Single-time visitors of Twelve Mile Circle seem acutely interested in Canada’s international borders. My web logs register variations of this Search Engine query probably daily. Sometimes this comes up — I think — as a trick question on trivia…

  • Street View Roadkill

    This is a bit macabre. Squeamish readers might want to skip directly past this entry. Maybe check back in a couple of days when I post a new article? Anyway, I received some great input from reader Ethan recently. He was kind enough to post another example of a state highway trespassing on the territory…