Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: History

  • Devil’s Highway

    Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred and sixty and six. — Revelation 13:18 Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia –- Fear of the number 666 A national highway in the western United States carried the “number of…

  • What-le-What?

    I ponder the intricacies of maps, just staring at various corners of the world for no particular reason. I think that’s fairly typical for much of the 12MC crowd although maybe not completely understood by the public at large. That’s their loss. How else would I find an odd conglomeration of LE towns in the…

  • Wyoming, Texas

    No, as far as I know there isn’t a town of Wyoming in Texas. Believe me, I’d hoped there might be such a place but the Geographic Names Information System provided by the U.S. Geological Survey doesn’t list one. Conversely there aren’t many items of significance named Texas in Wyoming either, other than a mine,…

  • Visiting the Library

    I attended a work-related meeting this morning. It was pretty typical, nothing special, and probably like a thousand other meetings you or I have ever experienced in our lifetimes. This one ended a bit differently though. It took place at an office deep within the Madison Building of the Library of Congress. So our host…

  • As the Bird Flies

    There are people who read Twelve Mile Circle from places located literally around the globe. It’s hard to believe in an era of instantaneous worldwide communication that pigeons were once considered a viable method to pass information in certain specialized instances. Often these were for specific military or governmental purposes. However, I’m not quite as…

  • Outer Banks Weekend

    Speaking of the Outer Banks of North Carolina — we were just talking about that, right? — that’s where I happened to be visiting for an extended weekend. I don’t get to do that very often so this was my chance for our own little episode of Weekend Roady. I love going to the beach…

  • Mainland Manhattan

    I reexamined a map of New York County for an article in progress recently and it reminded me of its odd boundaries. Most people are either unaware of this county or confuse it with the much larger New York City. Or if they have a basic awareness of the geography they equate it to the…

  • It’s Electric

    I have multiple interests that occasionally bleed over the borders of Twelve Mile Circle where they happen to merge with geography. That often includes an historical context that strays into more personal history in the form of genealogy. I’ve spent a lot of my free time on genealogy lately as I prepare for the public…

  • Summit’s Summit

    The ever-reliable Anonymous Searcher provided inspiration once again today. I’m not sure how I’d write half of my articles if it wasn’t for the inspiration of random search engine queries that somehow land on Twelve Mile Circle. It’s my daily Google Love. What can I say? My unknown friends in the general public need to…

  • Split the Name

    United States counties don’t split frequently anymore. There was a time, however, when it happened regularly as populations spread from the east coast into the hinterlands. Typically, a territory or a state would begin with a handful of very large counties. State governments would then carve them into increasingly smaller units as population increased. Eventually…