Category: Borders
-
Smallest County in the USA, Epilogue
The previous entries discussed the whole issue of “smallest county in the United States” in way more detail that it probably deserved. However, I wanted to point out one more oddity. The smallest self-governing county and the smallest independent city share a common border! So Arlington’s far western border runs straight along the entirety of…
-
Smallest County in the USA, Part 4
Today we crown the “Smallest County in the United States.” As noted in Parts 1 through 3 in this series, serious problems arose with the three smallest geographical units called counties (Kalawao County, Hawaii, New York County, New York and Bristol County, Rhode Island). Those three are counties in name only. They have no independently…
-
Smallest County in the USA, Part 3
Previous posts discussed several reasons why the three smallest counties in the United States do not function autonomously. Thus, they should not be considered counties except in name only. Independent Cities The focus of the current post is another unusual arrangement, the situation of independent cities. They function identically to most counties but in fact…
-
Canada – Close to the Border
This installment provides an instance where something sounded simple but turned out to be much more complicated than originally expected. Supposedly a disproportionately large percentage of the Canadian population lived near its southern border with the United States. So that should be a pretty easy thing to fact check, right? An Amorphous Band U.S. sources…
-
Double Landlocked Countries
A landlocked country is one that does not have a coastline. Presently 43 landlocked countries exist so it’s not a particularly rare occurrence. However, two countries conform to “doubly landlocked” situations and that is much more unusual. Those occur when landlocked countries completely surround another landlocked country. Someone beginning a journey from a double landlocked…
-
Unusual Geography of the Republic of The Gambia
Shape I don’t believe I’ve focused on the geography of an entire country before. However, the nation of The Gambia embodies so many interesting things to not focus some attention on it. First, notice the remarkable shape. It stretches long and narrow like a snake as it winds its way along the banks of the…
-
River Headwaters and Sources
Long is the history of adventurers who explored distant lands and tangled jungles to find the true origin of mighty rivers. But rivers are not simple contiguous lines that trace back easily to a single spot. Rather they are widely spread watersheds that drain to a common outlet. There can be hundreds of liquid tendrils…
-
Brunei Exclave
Once again I find myself pondering the mapping tools available through Google Analytics. I follow those daydreams to wherever they may lead. This time a visitor from Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei Darussalam caught my eye. So mentally I set off for the Southeast Asian island of Borneo to see what I might find. A…
-
The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries is an ongoing project undertaken by the Newberry Library in Chicago. When fully completed, the effort will result in the presentation of all United States county boundary changes. These stretch from their creation during colonial times all the way through the 21st Century. The Newberry Library explains why it…
-
Sawtooth and Knob Borders of Carroll County, NH
County borders tend to be fairly intuitive. Often they include the irregular lines of natural phenomena such as waterfronts, riverbanks or ridges. Other times they feature straight lines drawn by surveyors. Or a combination of both. However, some counties end up with all kinds of strange bumps, knobs, or sawtooth patterns. These can derive particularly…