Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Terrain

  • Lazy Blue Ridge Afternoon

    Over the weekend we traveled down the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It forms part of an ancient backbone, the Appalachian chain abutting central Virginia. As the crow flies, it wasn’t too far from Shenandoah National Park’s Swift Run Gap and Skyline Drive. We were guest on private land so I won’t give…

  • GPS and Genealogy – Arlington National Cemetery

    People’s willingness to share is one of the wonderful aspects of genealogy. A reader contacted me recently to provide further information about a common tangential ancestor — one not directly related to either of us but who had married into the larger family of Howder descendants — and for whom I’d had only the sketchiest…

  • Lake Delton is Gone

    NOTE: This entry was written in JUNE 2008, recording a historical event as it unfolded. It does not represent conditions at Lake Delton today. Lake Delton, the 267 acre lake shown on this map ceased to exist on June 9, 2008. This, the crown jewel of the Wisconsin Dells, roared down the Wisconsin River in…

  • Wisconsin Floods

    NOTE: This entry was written in JUNE 2008, recording a historical event as it unfolded. It does not represent conditions today. The weather has been unusual, and not in the way that Twelve Mile Circle normally appreciates. Awhile ago I posted a story about a water shortage in the southeastern part of the United States…

  • Unusual Goes Very Local, Part I

    Twelve Mile Circle is an appreciation of unusual places. However, they don’t have to be famous to be noteworthy. Every town has at least one unusual place, maybe more. Perhaps even your own hometown has a few. There is a spot in Arlington County, Virginia where a contiguous road called “North 26th Street” changes names.…

  • Narrowest Point in Maryland

    Maryland is about 250 miles long and about 100 miles wide at its greatest extremities. However, at one point it narrows to less than two miles where it forms its western panhandle. This is due to one natural geographic feature and one artificial line determined by humans. The Maryland-West Virginia border along this stretch hugs…

  • Tombolo!

    I love this word. Almost as much a thalweg. A Tombolo is a narrow neck of land that forms between the mainland and an island, or between two islands, as sand and sediment deposit between them. Waves hit a landform at a specific angle determined by surrounding currents. Over time this can build up to…

  • Lowest Road in Canada

    Recently I focused on the highest contiguous highway in the United States. Today I’d like to focus on the opposite situation in another place in North America. What is the lowest road in Canada? I love a good trick question. Canada’s lowest elevation is sea level, so the obvious answer would be any road that…

  • Trail Ridge Road

    As covered in the prior post, Trail Ridge Road reaches stratospheric elevations. It climbs to become the highest continuous highway in the United States. There it cuts straight through the splendor of Rocky Mountain National Park. Visitors scaling the summit from Estes Park, Colorado encounter another noteworthy feature along this remarkable road. This happens after…

  • Highest Contiguous Road in USA

    Mountainous roads climb to great heights in the western United States. But which one climbs the highest? As with many topics on Twelve Mile Circle, the answer depends. Does the road have to cross a mountain on the way between two points or can it stop at a dead end at the top? Does the…