Category: History
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The Erie Triangle
If one ponders a map of the United State’s and focuses on one of its four Commonwealths, specifically Pennsylvania, one will notice something a bit odd with its borders. The northern, southern and western borders all form straight lines of exact longitude or latitude. However there’s an exception, a little notch at the far northwestern…
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Killiniq Island, Canada
Sometime I come across the most interesting topics while researching other topics, as was the case when I investigated the Labrador Boundary Dispute recently. That thread led me to the unusual significance of Killiniq Island in northeastern Canada. Killiniq Island is very small. It’s only about 13 X 29 kilomteres (8 X 18 miles). It…
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Labrador Boundary Dispute
No internal Canadian boundary extends further than the one between Québec and Newfoundland & Labrador. It extends more than 3,500 kilometres (2,100 miles). Yet, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the government has never officially surveyed or marked it on the ground. It has a history of dispute that continues through today. The southern boundary was…
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Charleston Preview
I’ve spent the last several days in Charleston, South Carolina, and packed a lot of visiting into a short amount of time. Of course I’ll add more information to the permanent pages of my Travel Adventures site over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I wanted to give you (my regular blog readers), a sneak…
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Cooch Behar Quadripoint Boundary Cross
UPDATE: India and Bangladesh resolved this situation by exchanging territory and removing the exclaves in 2015. A quadripoint occurs when four borders meet at a single point. For example this happens in the United States at the “Four Corners“. There, the states of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado join together. In previous entries I’ve…
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Baarle-Hertog Quadripoint Boundary Cross
I love getting comments from readers. Recently I received an email about a quote from my recent Jungholz Quadripoint Boundary Cross posting. As a reminder, a quadripoint occurs when four borders meet at a single point, and example being the “Four Corners” of the United States where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado join together.…
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Visualizing Early Washington
A great article appeared in the Washington Post Magazine over the weekend. For now it remains available on-line on their website. “The Beginning of the Road – High-tech computer wizardry and good old-fashioned historical sleuthing are re-creating the lost world of Washington’s origins.” The Vision The underlying effort examined historical maps, drawings and narratives. It…
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The Forgotten River Capital
Mortals try to control nature and generally fail. I love it when people select rivers for boundaries. Invariable rivers flood, carve new channels, and people pretend it never happened. The old boundary remains in place with a chunk of territory now sitting on the “wrong” side of the river, fully separated from its homeland. I…
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The Grassy Knoll
This small hillside marks perhaps the most controversial landscaping feature in modern United States history. It has been linked inextricably with shadowy figures and sinister secrets. It is the infamous Grassy Knoll. President John F. Kennedy rode directly past this spot when gunfire ended his life on November 23, 1963. Depending on the evidence one…
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Antietam Topography
I crossed the Potomac River on my way back from Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and drove into Sharpsburg, Maryland a few miles later, the site of the Battle of Antietam. I didn’t have a great deal of time for my visit but I was still able to stop at a few favorite spots within this well-known…