Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Elevation

  • Canada’s Pocket Desert

    Canada allegedly contains exactly one lonely desert, or maybe none at all. It depends on who you consult. They’ve also coined various names for the anomaly known colloquially as “Canada’s Pocket Desert” including Okanagan, Osoyoos and Nk’mip. Whatever the designation, it’s located adjacent to the Town of Osoyoos in southern British Columbia. So it sits…

  • Confluence of Confluences

    I began to consider confluences while pondering the Confluence Brewing Company during my recent Geo-BREWities exercise. Maybe I should credit Google Map’s auto-completion function for the suggestion after I typed the brewery name into an address bar. It noted that at least one town of Confluence existed. A quick check of the Geographic Names Information…

  • Geo-BREWities

    My interests collide every once in awhile. I’ve mentioned my unnatural compulsion to visit breweries several times before. So, an overlap shouldn’t come as a surprise to regular readers. This time, an industry publication mentioned a beer dinner where they paired courses with beverages from Oxbow Beer in Maine. A brewery named for an oxbow…

  • Separate but Tallest

    Sometime examining something from a different angle provides interesting results. Other times it provides only the previous results, just with a different angle. Today it was the latter albeit with one unrelated twist at the end. I thought about a 12MC article from 2010, New Highpoint for the Netherlands. It pointed out the interesting situation…

  • Finding the Original Purpose

    I’m always on the lookout for unusual trivia. For example, something stuck in my mind a couple of years ago when I learned about the Augusta Canal. Logically it’s located in Augusta, Georgia, but that’s not what mattered. There was another claim that took a variety of forms. So I put that one on the…

  • British Roads Oddities

    I spent quite a long time, probably a solid couple of hours going through the British Roads FAQ on Roads.org.uk. I found map locations for those that fascinated me the most. It presented an extensive FAQ and I’ve shared a small sample of questions and explanations below. Links and all due credit should go to…

  • Capital Highpoints

    I once climbed to the top of the not-too-impressive highpoint of the District of Columbia. It’s even subway accessible, and you know I’m all about easy highpointing. The District highpoint is kind-of equivalent to a state highpoint — some lists include it and others do not — and that was a convenient loophole to add…

  • Chicago-New York Electric Air Line

    I have a fairly neutral opinion about trains and railroads, and readers probably wouldn’t confuse me with a railfan. I never really thought about them much, honestly. Sure, I’ve taken rides on scenic railroads once or twice and related geo-oddities make it onto 12MC occasionally. However, that’s generally coincidental. I’m starting to grow more fond…

  • Highpoint, Not Summit

    I was reminded recently, as I updated an old page, that not every U.S. state highpoint can be found on the summit of its parent landform. Boundaries don’t always follow geographic contours like rivers or ridges. Oftentimes segments are composed of straight lines determined by agreement or treaty or negotiation regardless of the underlying terrain.…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 3 (Appalachian Heritage)

    Geography and history dominate southeastern Kentucky. Those were primary reasons for my selection of this corner of Kentucky when I decided to feature it as my U.S. State of Focus(¹) during the Summer of 2013. Twelve Mile Circle concentrates foremost on geography. However, one never avoids history here completely either. The two went hand-in-hand during…