Twelve Mile Circle
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Thoughts on Buffalo
Perception often trumps reality when people consider geographic relationships. Twelve Mile Circle enjoys exploring these disconnects — the remote corner of southwestern Virginia comes to mind — so along those same lines let’s explore the placement of Buffalo, New York. Here’s a trick question made somewhat more obvious by the fact that I’ve chosen to…
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Festival of Maps – Chicago
The ongoing Festival of Maps in Chicago [link no longer works] features the combined efforts of more than 30 cultural and scientific institutions. It portrays the significance of and reflection of maps upon culture, exploration, discovery, and the world around us. Thus, the festival incorporates the physical display of maps along with lectures, seminars and…
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Sawtooth and Knob Borders of Carroll County, NH
County borders tend to be fairly intuitive. Often they include the irregular lines of natural phenomena such as waterfronts, riverbanks or ridges. Other times they feature straight lines drawn by surveyors. Or a combination of both. However, some counties end up with all kinds of strange bumps, knobs, or sawtooth patterns. These can derive particularly…
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The Free State of Winston
It’s not possible to be more truly Southern culturally than the residents of the state of Alabama. That’s why it’s surprising to realize that one Alabama county did not support secession. Its residents refused to join the Confederacy willingly. Winston County is located in a hilly area in the northwestern part of the state. As…
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County Highpointers Association
Twelve Mile Circle features another extremely specialized geography website today, this one hosted by the County Highpointers Association. It’s easy to find information on the highest point in a country or even one of the individual United States. This information is scattered across the Web in a million different places. But that’s not the case…
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Lake Okeechobee’s Five Counties
Lake Okeechobee (map) dominates South Florida’s landscape. It’s a massive liquid patch along a narrow peninsula. It’s as if some giant creature found the lower portion of the state a convenient coaster for the world’s largest mug. Additionally it is the second largest freshwater lake contained wholly within the United States. Only one of the…
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Santa Claus, Indiana
In southern Indiana east of Evansville, a town of 2,000 people exudes the holiday spirit year-round. They gave it the curious name “Santa Claus” (map). What the Clause? Various sources including Wikipedia claim that the town was originally called Santa Fe when it was founded in 1856. However residents had to change the name when…
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Grotian Traditions, Thalwegs and Winner Take All
Rivers are a natural boundaries and a pretty obvious way to determine who controls land on either bank. Well, not withstanding occasional riverbed shifts. However rivers are also natural resources in their own right. They provide drinking water, irrigation, food and transportation. Those who control territory abutting a river naturally want to own and control…
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Carter Lake, Iowa
Strange Maps recently featured “Shifting Like A Snake: Ancient Mississippi Courses” [link no longer works] with a beautiful rendition of its meandering riverbanks over time. The relatively flat middle portion of the United States seems particularly susceptible to these types of changes along its grand watersheds, whether the Mississippi, Missouri, Platte or others. I believe…
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Hi Mr. Howder — Just going from memory, I recall that your “rule” for counting a nation/state/county is “if I’m…
Thank you!
Not driving husband asked and I got him the answer thanks for information
Does anyone have actual music to the song – Tanaha ,Timpson. Bobo and Blair ?? It was recorded by Tex…
I think you might be referring to a post from January 2010 called “What Counts as a Visit.” My first…