Category: Cities/Towns
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Even More Weird Placenames
Twelve Mile Circle has been on a bit of an odd placenames fixation as of late. I found a few more examples. However, they didn’t have enough of a story behind them to justify an entire article on any one of them. So I figured I’d resurrect an earlier series and title this “Even More…
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Iowa, Iowa, Iowa
So let’s continuing on the theme of items uncovered while researching Geographic Matryoshka with US States. I’ll also recognize the upcoming Presidential primaries in Iowa in a couple of weeks. Maybe an Iowa topic might be appropriate. I’d uncovered a wonderful triple sequence formed by Iowa Township in Iowa County in the state of Iowa.…
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Rise and Fall of Idahome
Interesting things pop-up unexpectedly while I search completely unrelated topics. I searched every instance of a town with a state name, a laborious manual process undertaken for Geographic Matryoshka with US States. Dutifully, I entered each name into the Geographical Names Information System (GNIS) one-by-one and tallied the results. My search produced towns called Idaho…
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Geographic Matryoshka with US States
A challenge resulted from the recent Outside of California article, in a comment by loyal reader Rhodent. However, I have to say that I spent way more time than I’d care to admit seeking an optimal solution. Readers who relish a good mental challenge will probably enjoy trying to improve upon my results. Others will…
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California Tangential
Article research doesn’t always go as smoothly or as cleanly as one might imagine. I fall headlong into rabbit holes frequently, sometimes finding inspiration for future articles that continue the cycle. Rarely, however, do I find the sheer volume of factual oddities I encountered while investigating places “Outside of California.” I supposed it was enough…
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Outside of California
I spotted a town in Maryland called California. I’d known about it for awhile. It always seemed odd to have a town in one state named for another, especially one located an entire continent away. So I figured there must be a connection somewhere in there. Maybe it had roots in the California Gold Rush…
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Arizona’s Wandering Capital
The article I discovered was more than a year old, although it was new to me when I spotted it. The title intrigued me, Did You Know: Capital Of Arizona Moved 4 Times Before Settling In Phoenix. No, actually I didn’t know that. I’ve featured similar stories of wandering capitals for other states such as…
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Center of Power
Pioneers migrating into the central sections of the United States during the Nineteenth Century found a unique opportunity to shape their governance. Counties formed across the prairie in precise straight lines. Often they platted the local seat of government somewhere conveniently in the middle. Names bestowed upon these geographic slices frequently reflected prominent local businessmen…
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Surprise!
A visitor landed on Twelve Mile Circle from Surprise. That was the actual name of the town; Surprise, Arizona. Maybe it shouldn’t have surprised me. More than a hundred thousand people lived there, yet I’d never heard of it. I also learned during my search that Surprise was a surprisingly common designation. Some 238 surprises…
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Geography Ablaze
Loyal reader Ken has attended Burning Man a number of times and suggested I highlight some of the geographic quirks associated with it. He was even kind enough to provide the topics! I’ve never experienced Burning Man so I was grateful to begin this article with a pre-packaged outline. All of the ideas below came…