Category: International
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Named for Captain Cook
This isn’t intended as a biography of Captain James Cook although his voyages throughout the South Pacific and beyond were numerous and legendary. Rather this is about places named for Captain Cook, strewn about the waters in which he sailed and the shorelines that he charted. He has an entire society named for him if…
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Latitude Longitude Sequences
I was looking for geo-oddities — so many of my articles start off that same way — when I spotted something unusual. This was just prior to my recent trip to Washington and Oregon while I was working on my travel agenda. I’d been contemplating the addition of a quick loop to Newport on the…
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Northernmost Romans in Britain
Romans occupied and controlled a large southern swath of the island of Great Britain as they expanded their empire. How far north, I wondered, did they extend their empire there before it began to contract? What was their high-water mark? Hadrian’s Wall The Romans arrived on Britain in the year 43 and would remain as…
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Who Loves 12MC?
Who loves the Twelve Mile Circle website the most? Anguilla, apparently. I’ve tracked 12MC usage statistics for nearly five years, yet I hadn’t taken the next logical step by correlating this to per capita totals. Curiosity got the best of me and I created a simple spreadsheet comparing numbers of 12MC visitors by nations/dependent territories…
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Longest Natural Straight Line
I once featured a stretch of completely straight railroad track across the Nullarbor Plain. It ran an amazing 478 kilometres (297 miles), in Australia’s Longest Straight Line. I’ve also focused considerable attention on the Canada-United States border. That one hugs the 49th degree of latitude north for something like 2,000 km (1,250 mi) — although…
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Infrequent Crossings, US-Mexico
Things have settled down on Twelve Mile Circle after a brief weather disruption. I’m able to return to obscure United States border crossings. This second part focuses on the southern border with Mexico. So I consulted the same source that I used when I explored Canadian border crossing facts, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau…
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Infrequent Crossings, US-Canada
Twelve Mile Circle loves its borders, and probably none more than the border between Canada and the United States (for instance). The statistics are impressive: 119 border crossings; 39,254,000 trips by Canadians into the United States in 2009; and nearly $500 million in international trade passing every day on the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario…
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A Plan for Rare Visitors
I have a love/hate relationship with my relentless need to count. For example, I enjoy seeing visitors from so many different nations stopping by Twelve Mile Circle. I understand I should count my blessings yet it frustrates me to know that a handful of places have never appeared in my logs. One would think this…
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Hazy Hedge Maze Memories
I poked around that place where Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands share a common border, better known as the BEDENL tripoint, using Google Maps satellite view the other day. I noticed an interesting topiary feature. Labyrint Drielandenpunt I found a hedge maze! I’ve seen them called garden mazes, labyrinths and various other terms, too. They…
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Rama Setu (Adam’s Bridge)
Articles often influence new 12MC articles that I never anticipated originally, as is the case today. Actually, this one come from a comment by “Snabelabe” on All Ways – Every Cardinal Direction. I fixated on a link embedded in the comment, a list of countries and territories by border/area ratio. I always gravitate towards extremes…