Category: Cities/Towns

  • Global Warming is Killing Ice Golf

    How about an intentionally inflammatory and completely spurious headline that I’m claiming it to be “true” in the name of the infallible Internet? However, the fact remains that no World Ice Golf Championship has been held since 2006. Additionally, one may never be held again. The sponsors canceled it the last few years because of…

  • St. Patrick’s Day in My Wacky World

    I love my eccentric little neighborhood. It’s a perfect place for someone with unusual interests like me. I’ve discussed its oddities, peculiarities, history and geography on a number of occasions although they probably mean more to me than to you. I write Twelve Mile Circle as much to amuse myself as to appeal to an…

  • Random Selection, UK

    Google Maps released a huge set of Street View images for the United Kingdom a few days ago as you’ve undoubtedly learned on all of the geo-blogs by now. This extends the level of coverage for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to upwards of 95% of the road infrastructure. I’m sure you’ve had an…

  • A Couple of Recent Bloggy Finds

    I’ve been getting a few reader referrals over the last couple of days from a blog I’d never seen before. It had a rather intriguing and promising Intertube domain, railmaps.blogspot.com. Naturally I wanted to check it out. The site was kind enough to recommend me to its readers and I hoped to repay the favor.…

  • New Visitor Roundup

    It’s been awhile since you’ve had to endure my gleeful exclamations as each new visitor arrived from a country never represented before on the Twelve Mile Circle. That’s because I was getting tired of that thread and figured you were too. Nonetheless I’ve been collecting them the last couple of months so I can spring…

  • The Spots Not Covered

    I’ve confessed before to my fondness for an old-fashioned newspaper on a Sunday morning, and it’s doubly so when I stumble across an informative map in those ink-stained pages. A map I spied among the folds demanded my full attention, the grandiose centerpiece of a full page advertisement for a mobile phone company. They touted…

  • Streetview Beats a Deadhorse

    It all started innocently enough as a challenge from loyal reader “Matthias.” He began to ponder various geo-oddities surrounding the northernmost reach of Google Street View. Of course, I was up for a mental adventure after having been trapped in my home for several days due to snow.(1) However, unbeknownst to Matthias, Google Street View…

  • The Visual Genius of Dave Oswald

    Dave Oswald isn’t a household name but he should be for aficionados of larger-than-life roadside sculptures. Mr. Oswald is the owner and proprietor of DWO Fiberglass of Sparta, Wisconsin (formerly of F.A.S.T Korp of the same town). He has been constructing these masterpieces along highways and byways since 1962, bringing joy to viewers across the…

  • Chugwater

    There’s no telling what might register on my mind when I examine a map closely. Anything out-of-the-ordinary will jump to the forefront. It may be an odd shape like the perfect circle of Corona, a stranded bit of land like Carter Lake or a strange town name like Yeehaw Junction. It doesn’t matter. If it…

  • Northernmost England. Maybe.

    Berwick-upon-Tweed is the northernmost town in England. However, due to geography and history it also holds a lot in common with Scotland. First, notice it’s peculiar location along the River Tweed: specifically the northern side of the River Tweed. How did a little piece of England find its way to the opposite side of a…