The day I dreaded finally arrived. I was defaulted to the new version of Google Maps yesterday. I wasn’t favorably impressed when I first reviewed it last May. Also, I always understood that the version I’ve used since the creation of Twelve Mile Circle would go away eventually. Sooner-or-later I was going to have to confront this issue.
Allow me to clear a backlog of some short topics with another installment of Odds and Ends. That will give me a little time to figure out how to use the new version. Hopefully they’ve addressed some of my earlier concerns and everything will be all right.
Mary Carson Breckinridge
I noticed a little park in Kentucky as I searched for various places named Confluence while drafting the Confluence of Confluences article. Mary Breckinridge Memorial Park, also known as the Confluence Recreation Area, caught my eye (map). So who was Mary Breckinridge and how did she earn a memorial park, I wondered?
Her Family
It was a fascinating story that I’d hoped to turn into a full article. However, I never could figure out how to approach it. Mary Carson Breckinridge, as I learned was part of THE Breckinridge family:
“…the family has included six members of the United States House of Representatives, two United States Senators, a cabinet member, two Ambassadors, a Vice President of United States and an unsuccessful Presidential candidate. Breckinridges have served as college presidents, prominent ministers, soldiers, theologians and in important positions at state and local levels.”
Breckenridge, Colorado and its famous ski resort? Yes, named for the same family, even if spelled slightly differently. The family name and its influence spread far-and-wide across the United States.
Her Choices
Mary Carson Breckinridge took a different path, leveraging her family prestige and pedigree towards public service. She grew up privileged. She was also educated by private tutors and in exclusive schools both in the United States and in Europe. After personal tragedies during her early adulthood, she turned to nursing, helping to comfort victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic and then:
“The following year she joined the American Committee for Devastated France and organized a visiting nurse program in France. The program was so successful that two years later her nurses and midwives were caring for children and pregnant women throughout France. When Breckinridge returned to the United States in 1921, she found that there were no schools of midwifery and planned to start one.”
This evolved into the Frontier Nursing Service and the Frontier Nursing University, providing health care and educating nurse-midwives in an under-served corner of Appalachia. Hyden, Kentucky, the base of her operations and home of the current Mary Breckinridge Hospital, was just just down the road from Confluence. So the little park served as a memorial for her good works.
Tour de Odd
I’m thinking about organizing a casual bicycle ride between several Washington, DC area geo-oddities sometime this spring or summer. Sites would include stops at the American Meridian, various practical exclaves, an original boundary stone and the little chunk of Washington, DC crossed by the famous Beltway which is displayed in the photograph above (and see map).
Members of the 12MC audience who might be interested in joining me should feel free to contact me offline. The potential out and back is displayed above. The route is nearly flat, almost at sea-level, and provides amazing panoramic views of the monuments. So I’ll let anyone interested know more as I work out the details and the weather warms up.
Ontario
Twitter user @colourcountry [account no longer exists] mentioned the interesting situation of Ontario, California (map) which comes remarkably close (in name) to Ontario, Canada. The postal code for California is CA and the top-level Internet domain for Canada is ca. There’s all sort of potential for trouble or confusion going in either direction. He also noted a similar issue with Trinidad, Colorado (CO) and Trinidad, Colombia (co). Are there other instances?
That also reminded me of how far I’ve fallen behind on user mail. My apologies to all of you who have sent story suggestions. I’ll try to get to them as soon as I can.
Accident
Speaking of user suggestions, reader Kevin mentioned his fascination with the town of Accident in Maryland (map). He noted that visitors would be accidental tourists, and that the town had a “South North street and a North South Street.” It’s true!
How did Accident get its name? The Town of Accident said:
“Mr. George Deakins was to receive 600 acres of land in Western Maryland as a payment of a debt from King George II of England. Mr. Deakins sent out two corps of engineers, each without knowledge of the other, to survey the best land in this area. Both crews returned and to their surprise, they had both marked the same Oak tree as their starting and returning points. Mr. Deakins chose this plot of ground and had it patented ‘The Accident Tract’. Now called, the Town of Accident!”
Right. It sounds apocryphal to me too.
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