Twelve Mile Circle
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Chugwater
There’s no telling what might register on my mind when I examine a map closely. Anything out-of-the-ordinary will jump to the forefront. It may be an odd shape like the perfect circle of Corona, a stranded bit of land like Carter Lake or a strange town name like Yeehaw Junction. It doesn’t matter. If it…
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Northernmost England. Maybe.
Berwick-upon-Tweed is the northernmost town in England. However, due to geography and history it also holds a lot in common with Scotland. First, notice it’s peculiar location along the River Tweed: specifically the northern side of the River Tweed. How did a little piece of England find its way to the opposite side of a…
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What? Tonga Too?
It was only four days ago that I bragged and crowed that I’d recorded a website visitor from the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Now, apparently Christmas came a little late on Twelve Mile Circle. Someone just landed here from Tonga! It wasn’t a grab-and-dash either. Our mystery visitor stuck around for three page…
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Cross-Province Municipalities
Usually towns that rest upon a border are distinct entities. They may have the appearance of a single contiguous municipality but often that’s deceiving. Two separate local governments actually administer the two separate portions. Kansas City along the Missouri/Kansas border comes to mind: one metropolitan area; same name; different municipal governments. However there are two…
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And Now Vanuatu
I love it when a new visitor arrives on Twelve Mile Circle from a previously unrepresented geographic location. Now I can focus on another spot on the globe while simultaneously carving a new notch on my visitor map. So today the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu checked in! Some of you are probably thinking,…
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Llivia & Ile des Faisans
Today marks a special occasion on Twelve Mile Circle, with its first ever guest blogger, Matthias Gries from France. He has researched a couple of French geo-anomalies that fit in well with the spirit and content of this blog and has written a lively narrative to accompany it. I hope you enjoy his effort —…
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What counts as a visit?
Every once in awhile this geo-oddity hobby of our gets some positive attention. The County Counting blog — one I follow regularly and include on my blogrole in the left column of this website — has a copy of a Boston Globe article that appeared recently. The article is called: “For those who keep a…
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The Stranded Airport
Twelve Mile Circle has a fascination with little chunks of land stranded on the “wrong” sides of rivers that occur when waterways change course. Usually this happens when severe flooding digs a new channel through a gradually sloping area of relatively soft soil. I noticed just such a spot in St. Joseph, Missouri awhile ago…
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An Extreme Definition of “Southern”
An acquaintance of mine and I once got into a friendly discussion about what should count as a “southern” state within the United States. I thought, well, the list should start at least with the eleven that formed the Confederate States of America at the onset of the Civil War. From there we could talk…
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Shortest River… or Not
What is a river, exactly? In all seriousness, what differentiates a river from a creek, a brook, a run or some of the other watercourses mapped on Toponymia? Clearly it comes down to size and volume. But where does one draw the line between what should be called a “river” and what should not? So…
Latest Comments
I think that range needs to be expanded greatly. I’m in the Oklahoma City area and those are fairly prevalent…
The law in the 1800s when most of the countries was being broke down into smaller one stated that you…
I think you might be referring to a post from January 2010 called “What Counts as a Visit.” My first…
Hi Mr. Howder — Just going from memory, I recall that your “rule” for counting a nation/state/county is “if I’m…
That was its original range before people spread it all around. Now it’s in lots of different places, including Oklahoma.