Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • 75 Years of Drinking

    Today is the 75th Anniversary(1) of the repeal of Prohibition in the United States. In addition to my odd fascination with weird geography, I’m a horrible beer snob(2) and sometimes I even find ways to tie my fascination with beer and geography together. So I think of this as a big day for Twelve Mile…

  • Naval Ensigns of U.S. States

    Many of the colonies that became the original 13 United States had their own navies during the Revolutionary War. Indeed, only New Jersey and Delaware did not. Individual colonies hastily cobbled together fleets as the conflict unfolded. With these, they hoped to defend American shores from a superior British fleet. States formally commissioner some of…

  • Ghost Towns

    This is Matildaville. Little remains of this early 19th Century settlement built to serve the “Patowmack Canal” in what is now Great Falls Park. It sits the Virginia side of the Potomac River. I wrote a whole lot more about Great Falls and its history previously. But that’s besides the point. I got on a…

  • Aurora: A County Seat in Two States. Simultaneously!

    Nobody lives in Aurora today although upwards of five thousand people called it home immediately after its founding in 1860. No less a luminary than Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) called Aurora his home for several months during his mining days. It was a vibrant, successful town along the Nevada / California border. Both states claimed…

  • West Coast Sunrises over Water

    We’ve had fun watching the comments posted on my recent entry, East Coast Sunsets over Water. Matthew kicked things off when he wondered whether the opposite condition might exist. Does a West Coast sunrise ever happen over water? Scott Schrantz who has followed the Twelve Mile Circle for awhile, later solved the mystery by providing…

  • Another Favorite Travel Tip

    On the second day of my business trip to Chicago, I thought I would share another one of my favorite travel trips (remember the first one?). This tip is for those of you who have young children. The Trap A long time ago I used to travel fairly frequently with a co-worker who had several…

  • They Reversed the Chicago River

    What’s a growing city to do when its water supply is jeopardized by its own filth? If it’s Chicago and it’s the late 19th Century, they reverse the flow of an entire river system. In the process they purposely punctured a Continental Divide. I’m in Chicago this week so I wanted to make sure I…

  • East Coast Sunsets over Water

    We all have visions of a romantic Hollywood movie with a classic California scene. Naturally it includes a vibrant sunset over calm Pacific waters. I recall a conversation I had a number of years ago with a west coast native. He raved about those sunsets with an air of superiority. Obviously people on the east…

  • Google Street View Comes to Washington, DC Area (finally!)

    I’m about a week late, but I did notice when I went into Google Maps recently that the Washington, DC area has finally been added to Street View. I’d been grousing about it for awhile and thought it might never happen. This was a long time coming. Witnesses spotted the photo car in the District…

  • Caribbean Ferries

    Regular readers have gotten used to my unnatural fascination with, and periodic musings about ferries. I’ve been slowly cataloging and mapping ferry systems from around the world using the Google Maps API. The operative word being slowly. I’m finally ready to release the latest compilation. Ferries of the Caribbean (and beyond). Check it out! This…

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…