Twelve Mile Circle

  • 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…

  • Savor: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience

    Those reading Twelve Mile Circle for the weird geography stuff may want to take a pass today. Here I focus much more broadly within the scope of our stated purpose, “an appreciation of unusual places.” On Friday night, May 16, 2008, I had the pleasure of attending the opening session of Savor: An American Craft…

  • Most County Borders

    Quite awhile ago when the Twelve Mile Circle was still young I featured a series of posts focusing on the counties with the fewest neighboring counties. Now I’ve finally gotten around to the flip side of that observation. So what county has the most county borders? I’ve done quite a lot of checking and quite…

  • 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…

  • GeoBee Challenge

    Cape Trafalgar is to Spain as Cape Comorin is to WHAT? (India) I think most people are probably familiar with the concept of a Spelling Bee. Of course it’s possible to extend the same format to geography. Appropriately enough, the National Geographic Society has done just that and not surprisingly they’ve called it the National…

  • State of the Circle

    It’s difficult for me to believe, but I just hit the six month point with Twelve Mile Circle. So I thought I would take a moment to look back at the site by reviewing some highlights. Maybe I’ll even reflecting briefly upon the path that lead to this point. I wasn’t sure I’d last even…

  • Twelve Mile, Indiana

    It all started when I saw a query for “Twelve Mile Indiana” recorded in my web access logs. That’s not too strange. After all, this is Twelve Mile Circle. Someone typed the name of an obscure farm town into a search engine and out popped my site. That’s plausible. Misdirected links land here all the…

  • My Favorite Travel Tip

    I’ve been traveling recently and expect to go out on a few more trips this summer. Like many business travelers, I’ve developed a few tips for the road over the years. They’re little secrets that make life away from home more bearable. Geography topics on Twelve Mile Circle sometimes bleed into other topics that interest…


Latest Comments

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

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