Category: History
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Ghost Towns
This is Matildaville. Little remains of this early 19th Century settlement built to serve the “Patowmack Canal” in what is now Great Falls Park. It sits the Virginia side of the Potomac River. I wrote a whole lot more about Great Falls and its history previously. But that’s besides the point. I got on a…
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Aurora: A County Seat in Two States. Simultaneously!
Nobody lives in Aurora today although upwards of five thousand people called it home immediately after its founding in 1860. No less a luminary than Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) called Aurora his home for several months during his mining days. It was a vibrant, successful town along the Nevada / California border. Both states claimed…
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Another Favorite Travel Tip
On the second day of my business trip to Chicago, I thought I would share another one of my favorite travel trips (remember the first one?). This tip is for those of you who have young children. The Trap A long time ago I used to travel fairly frequently with a co-worker who had several…
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They Reversed the Chicago River
What’s a growing city to do when its water supply is jeopardized by its own filth? If it’s Chicago and it’s the late 19th Century, they reverse the flow of an entire river system. In the process they purposely punctured a Continental Divide. I’m in Chicago this week so I wanted to make sure I…
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The Twelve Mile Circle, Part I
Today marks the one-year Anniversary of this website, Twelve Mile Circle. However I’ve yet to explain the actual Twelve Mile Circle behind the name. I promised myself I would do so if I could keep this site active for a year, and I’ve now met that goal. So here goes. As many regular readers already…
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A Colonial Capital
I spent some of last week on business travel to Williamsburg, Virginia. Unfortunately I sat in a conference room for most of the time. However, I did manage to make it out to the historic sites for a few brief moments. Geography made Williamsburg the capital of the Virginia Colony and geography later took that…
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Sticking it to the Man (border style)
In recent posts I’ve listed examples of state and local governments leveraging the geography of their physical borders. They’ve generated tax revenue from outsiders who had no electoral standing to challenge it. For instance, I discussed situations found in the Southwick Jog of Massachusetts and the interstate highway traveling through northern Delaware. However, every once…
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Southwick Jog
Follow the border between Connecticut and Massachusetts westward and you’ll notice a little notch in an otherwise straight line. Many call this 2-1/2 mile dip the Southwick Jog after the town that plugs the hole. The ultimate authority and definitive source is “The Southwick Jog” by Rev. Edward R. Dodge, as appearing in Southwick, Massachusetts…
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Neutral Moresnet
All this recent talk on Twelve Mile Circle about strange European borders and condominium arrangements brings me to one of my favorite former anomalies: Neutral Moresnet. This place existed as somewhat of a no-man’s-land lodged firmly between sovereign neighbors from 1816 to 1920. Europe looked different as Napoleon’s empire dissolved. The victors negotiated amongst themselves…
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Condominium (not that kind)
A condominium is a concept in international law that describes a geographic area shared in equal sovereignty by two nations. As a practical matter, it creates a genuinely unusual and often impractical solution. A condominium isn’t distinctly part of any one nation but by agreement it’s within the control of both. So it has no…