Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Latitude

  • Where is Spider-Man Today?

    The newspaper version of the Amazing Spider-Man today (February 5, 2013) has Peter Parker attached to the back of a moving van, hitching a ride to San Francisco . He’s recently left Las Vegas, and he’s just passed a road sign that reads “San Francisco 237 miles.” Obviously Peter is riding along an Interstate Highway.…

  • Remarkable Sundials

    I started fixating on sundials after stumbling across the dueling Dodge City railroad time zone sundials during Kansas Mountain Time. Fortunately I don’t think I’ll reach a point where I’m compelled to compile a list and go out of my way to visit them (as I do with lighthouses, fortifications and breweries). However, I’d probably…

  • Odds and Ends 6

    We have lots to talk about today in convenient bite-sized morsels. Time passes, familiar stories change, unexplored topics surface, and readers continue to contribute great ideas (thank you!). It’s a convenient moment to dust-off a periodic recurring theme on 12MC. I call it “Odds and Ends.” Like a bad movie spawning endless sequels, the Twelve…

  • Arizona Strip

    Arizona’s observance of time demonstrates considerable weirdness. This article isn’t about time, however, although it’s about Arizona. I think of Arizona at least twice a year, in Spring and in Autumn when the United States toggles between standard and daylight saving time. A disconnected memory triggered by the upcoming time change floated back into to…

  • Mainly Marathons

    I always have some kind of weird geography-related scheme bubbling in the back of my mind. I’m constantly on the search for creative ideas for new places to visit. So I have one brewing at the moment — don’t know if it will actually happen — although the potential is there and I’m considering the…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • State Centers of Population

    The concept of population centers fascinates me. In the United States the U.S. Census bureau defines the Mean Center of Population. “The point at which an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if weights of identical value were placed on it so that each weight represented the location…

  • The Pinetree Line

    I’m not sure how I stumbled upon the Pinetree Line. It seemed to be a particularly descriptive term though. So I guess I tucked it away on my list of “things to ponder later.” It was a Cold War manifestation, an effort by Canada and the United States to provide an early warning system should…