Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Month: April 2008

  • Twelve Mile, Indiana

    It all started when I saw a query for “Twelve Mile Indiana” recorded in my web access logs. That’s not too strange. After all, this is Twelve Mile Circle. Someone typed the name of an obscure farm town into a search engine and out popped my site. That’s plausible. Misdirected links land here all the…

  • My Favorite Travel Tip

    I’ve been traveling recently and expect to go out on a few more trips this summer. Like many business travelers, I’ve developed a few tips for the road over the years. They’re little secrets that make life away from home more bearable. Geography topics on Twelve Mile Circle sometimes bleed into other topics that interest…

  • Automatic Geolocation on a BlackBerry

    This week I’m on the road once again, this time in southern California. I’ve had a great time with a Google Maps Mobile feature called “My Location” released in beta last November. I realize this is probably old news to many of you. However it’s the first opportunity I’ve had to test drive it in…

  • Tracking my Travels

    I have returned from my brief journey to the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts. So let’s wrap up this series of recent posts with a final entry. As I mentioned previously, the mapping tools provided with Google Analytics simply fascinate me. Now I’ve discovered yet another use for them: recording my travels. The Resulting Map…

  • Washington, DC Highpoint Dedication

    Elevation highpoints captivate me from from time-to-time. I’ve visited a couple of state highpoints before (Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Timms Hill in Wisconsin). I also wrote about my triumphant climb to the summits of both the smallest self-governing county and the smallest independent city in the United States on the same day. It…

  • Lake Pontchartrain Bridges

    I marveled at the sheer size of Lake Pontchartrain as I traveled between my brief stops in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There I crossed several miles of open water on a bridge. The water rolled beneath Interstate 10 as I drove in a stiff breeze. Twin Span Bridge The Twin Span…

  • Where West is East

    I’ve been on the road these last few days, at present in New Orleans, Louisiana. During this outing I’ve managed to collect another Strange Geography sighting. I would like to give the regular readers of Twelve Mile Circle a little preview today. Ultimately I’ll be adding it to my more comprehensive website in the coming…

  • NACO County/City Search

    In much of the United States, counties function as an arm of state government. They also play a decisive role in the delivery of basic services to people at a local level. Understanding that, sometimes a researcher knows the name of a town but not its associated county. As the National Association of Counties explains,…

  • GPS and Genealogy

    New technologies impact established disciplines in profound and pleasantly surprising ways. The Global Position System (GPS) provides obvious and well-known benefits for drivers and hikers alike. However, it has ready applications to many other activities too. As an example, handheld GPS devices continue to revolutionize field research conducted by personal historians and genealogists. The Power…

  • Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

    At one time France controlled vast holdings throughout North America. They stretched far into the interior and all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. France had been a great colonial power in North America since the Sixteenth Century while jostling against the territorial aspirations of Britain and Spain. The other powers ascended, often…