Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Elevation

  • The Point of Five Nevis Parishes

    I’ve been on a border kick lately. You may have noticed that if you’ve been paying attention to the last several of posts. Quite some time ago I described a situation in Florida. There, five counties came together at a single point in the middle of Lake Okeechobee. Now something a little more dramatic: five…

  • Neutral Moresnet

    All this recent talk on Twelve Mile Circle about strange European borders and condominium arrangements brings me to one of my favorite former anomalies: Neutral Moresnet. This place existed as somewhat of a no-man’s-land lodged firmly between sovereign neighbors from 1816 to 1920. Europe looked different as Napoleon’s empire dissolved. The victors negotiated amongst themselves…

  • Lowest Public Restroom in North America

    As I noted recently, the highest and lowest elevations in the continental United States are only about 80 miles apart. What I didn’t say at the time was that I came across an interesting image as I researched that fact. A Restroom! Yes, a restroom sits here at the Badwater Basin in Death Valley. That…

  • Highest and Lowest, Oh So Close

    California contains both the highest and lowest elevations of the continental United States. Well, the “Lower 48” more precisely. Astoundingly, they are less than 88 miles (142 kilometers) apart with an elevation change approaching 15,000 feet. Mount Whitney is the California Highpoint at 14,494 feet (4,418 meters) above sea level. It crowns the mighty Sierra…

  • The Grassy Knoll

    This small hillside marks perhaps the most controversial landscaping feature in modern United States history. It has been linked inextricably with shadowy figures and sinister secrets. It is the infamous Grassy Knoll. President John F. Kennedy rode directly past this spot when gunfire ended his life on November 23, 1963. Depending on the evidence one…

  • Antietam Topography

    I crossed the Potomac River on my way back from Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and drove into Sharpsburg, Maryland a few miles later, the site of the Battle of Antietam. I didn’t have a great deal of time for my visit but I was still able to stop at a few favorite spots within this well-known…

  • Lazy Blue Ridge Afternoon

    Over the weekend we traveled down the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It forms part of an ancient backbone, the Appalachian chain abutting central Virginia. As the crow flies, it wasn’t too far from Shenandoah National Park’s Swift Run Gap and Skyline Drive. We were guest on private land so I won’t give…

  • GPS and Genealogy – Arlington National Cemetery

    People’s willingness to share is one of the wonderful aspects of genealogy. A reader contacted me recently to provide further information about a common tangential ancestor — one not directly related to either of us but who had married into the larger family of Howder descendants — and for whom I’d had only the sketchiest…

  • Wisconsin Wrap-Up

    I’ve returned from my trip to Wisconsin with tons of new material for the website. I already provided a preview of some of these on the Twelve Mile Circle (this blog). In addition, you can expect more detailed write-ups to start appearing on the permanent site over the next few days and weeks. Oddities that…

  • 7 Uninhabited Islands

    I get emails from time-to-time. Some ask me to check out a blog and provide a link if I find the content interesting. That’s the case today, and the subject is 7 Beautiful But Completely Uninhabited Islands And Archipelagos. It comes from a commercial website for a travel company called ProTraveller. I don’t know anything…