Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Month: January 2008

  • 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…

  • First Votes in New Hampshire Presidential Primary and Election

    Crawford Notch (map), and its primary community Hart’s Location, form an 11 mile by 1.5 mile protrusion outward from the northwest corner of New Hampshire’s Carroll County (see my previous entry on the irregular borders of Carroll County). However, it’s not a worthless appendix. It provides an important passageway through the White Mountains as it…

  • 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…

  • 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…