Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Winneconne Rebellion

    Winneconne seems so much like many typical villages I’ve experienced during my travels through the Upper Midwest of the United States, at least on the surface. Farming and fishing commingle along beautiful lakes carved into the landscape by glaciation during the last Ice Age. It’s what makes Wisconsin one of my favorite places on earth…

  • Adventures along Maryland I-70/68

    The weather turned nasty on the second day of my MDVAWV adventure. Suddenly my hiking plans no longer seemed quite as attractive as the day before. I took to the road and explored through western Maryland instead. The route I describe below is a composite. The portion east of Hagerstown took place as I drove…

  • Circling the MDVAWV Tripoint

    I tagged along while my wife attended a work-related conference in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle. The in-laws watched the kids back home. That provided me with a rare couple of days to wander around the woods while my wife schmoozed with conference attendees. The area was amazingly rich in significant events that shaped a nation.…

  • Monopoly

    I think I’ve always known that the game of Monopoly was based on street names in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It goes back to the earliest days of my geo-geekdom, a useless nugget that I latched onto so long ago that I don’t know when or where I learned it. Monopoly was the first board…

  • A Precious Tip

    The Washington Monument has been in the news quite a lot lately. Experts continue to examine damage resulting from the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on August 23, 2011. The thought of people rappelling down narrow masonry walls for hundreds of feet searching for cracks seems daunting. Just watch this video from the Associated Press:…

  • Transcontinental Clip

    I like to photograph unusual signs as I travel, either for my personal amusement of for future reference. One such occasion presented itself at the Union Station train museum during my recent visit to Ogden, Utah. It displayed a large map of the original Overland Route, the one known better as the Transcontinental Railroad. It…

  • Strip Annexation in Arizona

    Loyal reader Scott sent me a message recently related to towns studded with enclaves outside of their jurisdiction. That specific topic sometimes generates discussion on Twelve Mile Circle (e.g., Mmm… Doughnut and the Gaithersburg Doughnut Hole). So he wished to bring an even more interesting situation to my attention. He referenced the concept of Strip…

  • 12MC in the Real World

    What do I mean by Twelve Mile Circle in the Real World? I don’t mean the actual circle itself which would be entirely too logical, rather I mean those rare moments in time when people read an article here and use that as motivation to undertake a physical action. And by physical I don’t mean…

  • Icelandic Diaspora

    I thought about a trip I made to Washington Island several years ago. That’s the island found off the tip of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula where most people arrive by ferry. The residents displayed their Icelandic roots with great pride. I wondered at the time and I’ve wondered occasionally since, whether this was true or simply…

  • Thelma and Louise Route Map

    What would possibly possess the Twelve Mile Circle to examine a 20-year-old chick flick practically frame-by-frame for most of a weekend? Blame it on a skewed sense of curiosity fanned by random search engine queries I’d observed in my web logs. I’d mentioned the movie Thelma and Louise only once on 12MC, and only as…

Latest Comments

  2. Hi Mr. Howder — Just going from memory, I recall that your “rule” for counting a nation/state/county is “if I’m…

  5. Does anyone have actual music to the song – Tanaha ,Timpson. Bobo and Blair ?? It was recorded by Tex…