Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Tag: Wisconsin

  • Quad County Towns

    I mentioned Braselton, Georgia a few months ago in an article called “Bought the Town.” In that case the person who bought the town was the actress Kim Basinger who later sold her interest for a stunning financial loss. More interestingly, I noted, the town boundaries included a county quadripoint. Braselton sprawled across Barrow, Gwinnett,…

  • Chicken Scratch

    Chicken scratch serves as an informal term for illegible handwriting. It is also a type of chicken feed that’s typically strewn upon the ground. Chickens then scratch around the dirt in pursuit of feed, leaving claw marks behind. I suppose illegible handwriting might be thought to resemble the results of hungry chickens foraging for cracked…

  • Barron County Street Grid

    I stumbled upon Barron County, Wisconsin — figuratively speaking — as I researched the Big Zero article. There seemed to be a plethora of zero-themed streets in the United States. In fact I think I’d claim that no other nation competes with the sheer number of zero streets, avenues, lanes, drives, etc., found throughout the…

  • Big Zero

    I noticed something I hadn’t seen before as I gazed upon a map of the Canada – United States border. Well, maybe I’d noticed it before although it must not have registered at the time if that’s the case. What? You don’t stare at maps of the border? It’s one of my fixations. I’ve learned…

  • Bridge Between Wisconsin and Michigan

    My favorite inspiration, random Internet queries falling from the sky onto the Twelve Mile Circle via search engines, struck again recently. This time our anonymous explorer wanted to find more information about a bridge from Wisconsin to Michigan. The natural reflex would be to pull out a map… … and say to oneself, a bridge…

  • Slices of Belgium

    Immigration and the fingerprints it leaves behind sometimes finds its way to Twelve Mile Circle as a topic of conversation. The legacy remains even after a successful assimilation and disbursement of the original population. I’m curious particularly about the smallest populations of settlers in new lands — and it might be difficult to get more…

  • Want to be a Lighthouse Keeper?

    Lighthouse Keeper is one of those occupations similar to lamp lighter, elevator operator, stenographer and ice delivery person that probably doesn’t offer many career opportunities in the modern world. It takes a special personality to endure days and weeks of loneliness and isolation. So imagine life in a lighthouse perched on rocky crags far removed…

  • Run on Water

    Occasionally I’ll come across something really interesting, at least to me, and I’ll save it away for a more appropriate time. That’s great when it works. It’s much less impressive when other factors conspire to take away its very reason for being. Sadly, the 2012 “Run on Water” will be the “Run by the Water”…

  • Winneconne Rebellion

    Winneconne seems so much like many typical villages I’ve experienced during my travels through the Upper Midwest of the United States, at least on the surface. Farming and fishing commingle along beautiful lakes carved into the landscape by glaciation during the last Ice Age. It’s what makes Wisconsin one of my favorite places on earth…

  • Icelandic Diaspora

    I thought about a trip I made to Washington Island several years ago. That’s the island found off the tip of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula where most people arrive by ferry. The residents displayed their Icelandic roots with great pride. I wondered at the time and I’ve wondered occasionally since, whether this was true or simply…