Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Tag: Connecticut

  • Tombolo(s) of Connecticut

    I have an odd affinity for tombolos. I don’t know why. It’s completely irrational. Even one of the earliest Twelve Mile Circle articles focused on the phenomenon. I’ll stick with a definition I drafted back then and quote myself. “A Tombolo is a narrow neck of land that forms between the mainland and an island,…

  • Pennsylvanians are From Mars, Texans are From Venus

    I keep a close eye on the geographic characteristics of Twelve Mile Circle visitors, which seems natural for a geo-oddity website. I also generate article topics from viewer anomalies. For example, I never knew about Mars in Pennsylvania (map) until a Martian visitor, one from a spot north of Pittsburgh as it turned out, jumped…

  • Egyptian Revival Churches

    Let’s start by noting that Egyptian Revival refers to an architectural style. Also, my understanding of architecture borders on nil. So, Egyptian Revival in this context has everything to do with the physical characteristics of a building. It’s a bit confusing because many churches also hold revivals. Those are completely different. I’ll be talking about…

  • Connecticut Extremes: Are We There Yet?

    It’s been a protracted series of Extreme Connecticut geography articles and you’re probably growing a little weary of them by now. I was in a similar position somewhere around this same point during our long and busy adventure. Nonetheless, nobody had ever visited the state’s four cardinal extremities in a single day before. We were…

  • Connecticut Extremes: Water, Water Everywhere

    Having survived the highpoint-tripoint humidity challenge earlier that morning, Steve of CTMQ led Scott of The Scenic Drive and myself to the next set of Connecticut geography extremes. It eventually dawned on us that they almost all involved water in some manner. The first attraction, Connecticut’s highest elevated pond, appeared by the roadside just a…

  • Connecticut Extremes: Humidity and Humility

    The Extreme Connecticut Geo-Tour began a day early for me with a seven-hour drive from the Washington, DC area to a hotel in Avon, CT that I used as my home base. I timed the drive well, managing to avoid various rush hours along a nefarious traffic corridor. Then I shot an email to Steve…

  • Connecticut Extremes: Appetizer

    Merriam-Webster includes various definitions of appetizer including: “something that stimulates a desire for more (a literary appetizer).” That’s what I’m serving this evening, a Connecticut Geo-Oddities Appetizer. I took a bunch of photographs of signs during my recent adventure and I thought I might offer them to the 12MC audience as a quiz. How many…

  • My Craziest Geo-Oddity Adventure Ever

    The adventure will have ended by the time you read this. I’m writing this several days ahead of time since I will be returning home when my WordPress software automatically posts this. I suspect I’ll also be dog-tired. The Auction This whole crazy thing started almost exactly a year ago. Steve Wood, the author of…

  • New Counties

    I had so much fun hunting through counties with the recent Google Maps boundary release that I simply kept going. Then I fixated on a set of United States counties somehow considered “New.” Well they started with the prefix New, and referenced something older. Several states included that format so I figured I’d find plenty…

  • The Smallest Tribe

    What is the smallest tribe of Native Americans in the United States? It’s more difficult to answer than one might imagine. The definition varies. It could be based on population or territory as an example. I’ll look at both. Recognition by the Federal government could add another dimension to the question. However, some State-recognized tribes…