I noticed an anomaly when I researched Kansas Mountain Time for an article last January. Very little of Kansas remains in Mountain Time anymore and I suspect the entire state will flip eventually to Central Time. That hasn’t happened yet and the anomaly will remain in place until that occurs.
View Mountain Time in Kansas in a larger map
Notice the far northwestern corner of Kansas, just north of the Mountain Time counties. That’s Cheyenne County. Cheyenne switched to Central Time in approximately 1955 according to the Statoids website. Meanwhile, western Nebraska observes Mountain Time as does all of Colorado. That created a situation where Cheyenne County is surrounded by its neighboring time zone on three sides. Drive east from Cheyenne and one will remain in Central Time. Drive north, south or west, and one will enter Mountain Time upon passing the county border.
This can be observed more clearly in the image I created in the National Atlas of the United States’ Map Maker, one of the few online resources that allows one to create a map with time zones and county borders. I considered whether this might be an unusual situation, a rare instance of time zone herniation with a county completely protruding into its neighbors, or whether it was entirely more common. I went through the time/county overlay in Map Maker and found only one other example, well, four-fifths of an example actually. Cheyenne County is either unique or nearly unique, with a different time zone found completely on three sides.
The kind-of, maybe, sorta instance
This is Malheur County, Oregon. I’ve mentioned Malheur before. It’s the corner of Oregon in Mountain Time that allows the trick question about an Atlantic state and a Pacific state only one hour apart (and on the same time for a single hour each year when the clocks are turned back in autumn). However, look closely, and it’s apparently that a small portion of Malheur’s southern end observes Pacific Time like the rest of Oregon.
The separation is defined by Title 49, Section 71.9 of the US Code of Federal Regulations:
"thence southerly along the west line of Malheur County to the southwest corner of T. 35 S., R. 37 E.; thence east to the Idaho-Oregon boundary". It’s a matter of drawing a line along the designated township and range boundary which corresponds to a latitude at approximately 42.45° north. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere (map)
Most of Malheur observes Mountain Time because it’s so far removed from Oregon’s cities that it’s more aligned economically with places in Idaho. That doesn’t explain the lower one-fifth, though. I looked a little closer.
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Actually the southern portion accommodates residents of McDermitt, a town split by two states. The majority of McDermitt falls on the Nevada side of the border, on the left side of the Street View image. Nevada follows Pacific Time. Thus it makes sense for this small corner of Malheur to follow Pacific Time too. It makes even more sense when one considers that 75% of the population is associated with the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe.
Do we count Malheur as a second example in spite of it’s split personality, or do we consider Cheyenne a truly unique occurrence?
Random Unrelated Item
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This nondescript grass path in a generic housing development leads to the Historic Tucker Family Cemetery, which is the oldest African American cemetery in the former English colonies of North America. It dates back to the arrival of slavery in the Jamestown colony in 1619. The Hampton Rhodes (Virginia) Daily Press described how it was long neglected and focused on recent restoration efforts. It’s shocking how a place of such historic significance could have fallen into such disrepair for the past half-century. History lurks everywhere. Even in the suburbs.
Twelve Mile Circle picks a different state for its vacation each summer, and concentrates on an aspect of it intensely. Previous examples have included Alaska, Utah, and Oregon. The ultimate purpose of these holidays is to focus on unusual or oft-overlooked sites within the United States while sprinkling-in a few of the more famous sites as well.
The state selected for the 12MC treatment in 2013 is KENTUCKY, specifically the far southeastern corner.
View Kentucky Thoughts in a larger map
Diverse factors went into this decision. Key amongst them was my lack of county counting coverage. I’ve driven Interstate 75 through the target area and I’ve also nibbled on its western edge. As a whole, however, my time on the ground there was minimal and my county count has been decidedly lacking.
Southeastern Kentucky also offers the ability to avoid airline travel. I am completely fed-up with the airlines. I am annoyed by overly-abundant airport security hassles, I am disgusted by a complete lack of customer service and I am tired of being nickel-and-dimed with an endless parade of airline fees, each one more outrageous than its predecessors. This summer, 12MC will give the airlines the old One Finger Salute by selecting an automotive destination. It should take about nine hours — a long but manageable single-day drive — which compares favorably to dealing with an airport, flying cross-country, grabbing a rental car, and driving to a hotel.
The target area I’m anticipating includes a 20-ish county area that avoids major cities as represented on my crudely-drawn map: Adair; Barren; Bell; Casey; Clay; Clinton; Cumberland; Edmonson; Green; Hart; Knox; Laurel; Lincoln; McCreary; Metcalfe; Pulaski; Rockcastle; Russell; Taylor; Wayne; Whitley. I won’t hit every one of those counties, and I’ll probably stray outside of those boundaries for the right opportunities (including into Virginia or Tennessee). I’m still early in the research process so it’s in flux. I’m using it focus my concentration for the moment and using it as a starting point, primarily.
The map presents several possibilities even in its embryonic stage. My attention has already been drawn to all things Cumberland (e.g., Cumberland Gap, Cumberland Falls, Lake Cumberland), as well as to the Daniel Boone National Forest and to Mammoth Cave National Park. I visited Mammoth as a kid and I want to return as an adult to see if my pint-sized memories hold true. Plus, my kids love going on cave tours and Mammoth is the king-of-kings for the eastern United States.
My 12MC Complete Index didn’t present an abundance of geo-oddities within the target area, although there are a couple. I’ve shaded the map in yellow and blue to split the target between Central Time and the Eastern Time. We’ll be bouncing between time zones like on the Dust Bowl trip and that always provides a level of amusement. Plus, a time zone anomaly exists within the target area with a chunk of central time farther east than a chunk of eastern time. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to experience the anomaly although I’d probably do it for grins if I happened to be nearby for some other purpose.
Here is the part where I consult with the wise and all-knowing audience. You’ve come through for me several times in the past, suggesting great places to visit that I never would have learned about without your input. Some of those included Capulin Volcano in New Mexico, gas stations in Oregon where I could pump my own gas, Timpanogos Cave National Monument and the ATK Rocket Park in Utah. I am certain that there must be people in the 12MC universe who have either lived in or who have vacationed in southeastern Kentucky.
What "can’t miss" spots have I overlooked? You may see your recommendation mentioned in a 12MC article in July.
I enjoyed filling in newly captured counties in my county counting map as a result of the recent Dust Bowl trip. I was quite pleased with the result, a nice block of color added to a previously-empty quadrant. I left behind a couple of doughnut-hole counties that I’ll probably never capture. That’s fine. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m oddly at peace with the thought of never capturing every single one of the 3,143 counties and county-equivalents in the United States.
Lincoln County, Colorado stood-out as I shaded the blocks.
View Shaped Like they Sound in a larger map
I noticed that it was a mirror-image, or backwards, or perhaps a dyslexic letter "L" in appearance, and also the first letter in Lincoln. I’m not sure why I found that remarkable or amusing, and I’m not sure why anyone else should care either. Nonetheless it sparked an odd quest to see if I could find other places that were shaped like the first letters in their names.
SOURCE: Wikimedia via Creative Commons 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
There are several recognizable examples at the State level. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles noted one such instance right on its license plate, the state’s resemblance to the letter "O." In addition lots of schoolchildren learn that Vermont resembles a "V" to distinguish it from New Hampshire when memorizing the states, and finally, Louisiana looks a lot like an "L."
I put all of my little discoveries, both at the state and county levels, on a single map.
View Shaped Like they Sound in a larger map
You should feel free to open the map in a new tab and explore my finds, or continue to read the article and I’ll provide a few more highlights with links directly to appropriate corners of the map.
It struck me that Louisiana + Ohio + Vermont = L-O-V. It’s too bad that the United States doesn’t have another state beginning with E to the east so we could get a little LOVE. The best I could imagine might be Prince Edward Island if we could convince Canada to give it up, drop the Prince part and start it with Edward, then bulldoze the island into a shape more reminiscent of an E. I wonder if Brent, 12MC’s self-anointed "obligatory Canadian" might arrange a swap? Maybe Canada could trade PEI for a very thin strip of equivalent acreage along the straight, extended border through the western half of the continent? I’m kidding of course. No offense implied or intended to the fine citizens of Canada.
The Letter L
View Shaped Like they Sound in a larger map
Actually another Lincoln formed a much better L than the one in Colorado. Lincoln County, Wyoming at least faced the proper direction. I also found lesser examples in Lafayette County, Florida (map) and Lake County, Oregon (map)
The Letter P
View Shaped Like they Sound in a larger map
You might have to bend the rules a little to see this one. Polk County, Arkansas doesn’t have a little cut-out circle but the average viewer should still be able to interpret this as the letter "P" without too much effort. A similar situation exists in Perry County, Alabama (map).
And the Rest of the Counties
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Setting aside that Rhode Island no longer has any functional counties — albeit they’re still used for U.S. census purposes — I think my favorite might be Newport. To me, it resembled a lower-case letter "n" written in a cursive script. Maybe? Just a little?
Other examples requiring a bit of creative imagination would include the "R" of Roberts County, South Dakota (map) and the sideways-"T" of Tulsa County, Oklahoma (map).
Thank goodness for the circular towns of Georgia
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Many 12MC readers are familiar with the numerous towns in Georgia with an unusual "O" shape found in few other places. I figured I could find at least one town beginning with the letter O that had retained its original boundaries through the last couple of centuries. It was harder than I imagined. Annexations have changed many of their borders to the point where arcs have softened or have been erased. Oliver, Georgia remained pretty faithful though.
Others mostly intact O-towns in Georgia included:
- Ochlocknee (map)
- Offerman (map), albeit with a nub
- Omega (map) although it would have been infinitely more fascinating if it had been Ωmega shaped.
I wondered if any of the formerly circular towns had annexed pipestems to create b’s, d’s, p’s or q’s but I got bored and lost interest I decided to leave something behind for the 12MC audience to discover on its own.
