Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Author: Twelve Mile Circle

  • Hier Wird Deutsch Gesprochen

    In Belgium, ongoing tensions between Flemish-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia receives a lot of attention. However, there’s actually a third distinct Belgian linguistic community, the German-speaking people of the East Cantons. This community represents approximately 70,000 people, or a little less than one percent of the nation’s population. It retains a level of political independence…

  • But It Used to be Jackass Junction

    Yeehaw Junction, Florida: right near… nothing; in the middle of… nothing. It’s nearly an hour inland from the sea. It’s also an hour south of Orlando. So it’s nowhere near the two most common reasons anyone would ever visit Florida. Set among drainage canals and swamp, Yeehaw Junction exists as little more than a rest…

  • Isles of Shoals

    Maine and New Hampshire share a land border that continues outward into the Atlantic Ocean. There it goes straight through the middle of the mysterious Isles of Shoals. There the states share an additional land border along a causeway only a few yards wide. This map shows the Isles of Shoals, a series of rocky…

  • Goodbye, Map

    Admired objects are supposed to be handled with dignity. A good example is a national flag. It’s accorded a certain respect as it fades, rips or otherwise reaches the end of its useful life. In the United States there’s even a federal law that requires such things. The flag “should be destroyed in a dignified…

  • Rambling Along the Taylor-Rose Segment

    I derive inspiration from odd places. Recently I stumbled across a simple notation on a chart, no more than a throwaway comment really, and it fascinated me. I noticed a brief history of Highway 183 on the US Highways website,(1) “Since 1930; original route North Platte, NE – Dresden, KS, extended north to Vivian, SD…

  • Throw the Dart

    The previous topic was rather serious. So today I will take a more lighthearted approach. Several years ago there was a reoccurring story on one of the news stations where the reporter would take a dart and throw it at a map of the United States. Then he would travel to the spot and find…

  • Today, a Town Dies

    Tuesday, September 1, 2009. Picher, Oklahoma died. Rest in peace. We’ve all heard of ghost towns, those places of lost hope and faded glory, of abandonment, dejection and crumbling ruins. It’s not merely a relic of a distant past. Modern day ghost towns also join the spectral realm while their inhabitants scatter for safer harbors.…

  • Independent Cities (the Water Tower Tour)

    An independent city in the United States is a rare form of government. In broad general terms, the county is the tertiary or local level of government.(1) An independent city belongs to no county and derives its authority directly from the State. This is true even if it happens to be surrounded entirely by a…

  • “Ya gotta be jokin’ – No we’re not!”

    “Ya gotta be jokin’ – No we’re not!” proclaims the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, the self-determined Worlds most exclusive Yacht Club, where only people who have actually skippered their own vessel on the lake surface can attain full membership. This becomes an extremely daunting task under the best of conditions. Additionally, conditions only allow it…

  • Abingdon Plantation Ruins

    Here stand the ruins of the old Abingdon Plantation, an antebellum estate dating back to the colonial times before the United States even existed, when Virginia was subservient to England. The Alexander family, perhaps best remembered today as the namesake of the nearby independent City of Alexandria, held title to these lands. Ownership passed to…