Category: History
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Oldest Town in Ireland
I don’t know why I torture myself. Nothing good can come from this, and yet I can’t resist. I noticed a place reputed to be the “oldest town in Ireland” as I investigated an unusual geographic feature. These types of claims are notoriously tenuous and probably doubly-so in a land as ancient as Ireland. At…
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Nimrod
I noticed a lake clipped by the stair-step border in Arkansas. What kind of nimrod would name something Nimrod Lake (map)? Nimrod applies in a derogatory way in various usages of American English. It references someone rather dim-witted. However, I don’t know if that applies elsewhere in the English speaking world. Maybe our regular readers…
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The Merrick Strip
Three cheers for longtime reader Pfly for pointing out the Merrick Strip in a recent comment. Did you miss the comment? Are you wondering what I’m talking about? Then check out the northwest corner of Merrick County, Nebraska. Notice what almost looks like an antenna protruding from the main body of the county. It’s an…
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Stair Step Border
A jagged border exists between Perry and Yell Counties in Arkansas. It comes with fifteen perfectly-aligned steps rising northeasterly like a superhuman staircase stenciled upon the landscape. The path traverses land and lakes alike, in a noticeably precise pattern. It seemed rather unusual to me. More commonly one would expect to see a border drawn…
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Dr. Howder Road
It looks like I’ll need to write an article today seeing how the world didn’t end last night. Thankfully I hedged my bets and started my research well in advance. Otherwise I’d be struggling with a suitable topic this morning. Calling Dr. Howder I’ve start with a question: Who was Dr. Howder and why does…
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Bill Williams’ Fingerprints
Peering at a random spot on a map — one of my favorite hobbies — showed a river with a name so ordinary it seemed unusual. I realize that’s an oxymoron so bear with me a little while and hear me out. Rivers often carry the names of the topography that surrounds it. Sometimes it’s…
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Intertwining Threads
I’m predisposed to look for patterns and there are times when they come together better than others. This is one of those times although it may seem to have a bit of a stream-of-consciousness feel to it. Heading to San Diego I left for Dulles Airport on Monday morning for a week of work in…
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Mistaken Identity, Part 2
I call the second case of mistaken geographic identity the “Invasion of a Maryland Beach Town!” This instance of mistaken geography happened long before my birth, and all the way back in 1941. It became Howder family legend. And it will undoubtedly pass along to our progeny for generations to come. Some families bestow royal…
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Multi-Word Capital Cities
So I get strange queries. I noticed one recently from somebody who wanted to know the name of each national capital city composed of two or more words. No, I didn’t try to figure out the logic. I have no idea why they wanted to find this. If people ever learned to do things like…
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International Latitude Observatories
I came across an interesting building while researching the Gaithersburg Doughnut Hole a few months ago. It’s just to the east of the hole by a couple of streets, so more accurately it’s just barely on the doughnut, perhaps it’s a coconut sprinkle. Here’s how it appears in a public domain photograph: It looks rather…