Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Nature

  • For the Birds

    While researching family history recently I came across several distantly related individuals who were born and married in the town of Audubon, Iowa, a place that is also the seat of government for a county of the same name. I wondered, as I combed through archival records, whether they commemorated famed 19th Century naturalist, ornithologist,…

  • Giant Artichoke

    I spent a few summers in Monterey, California when I was a kid. We’d land at the airport in San Francisco and drive south, cutting across the mouth of the agriculturally-oriented Salinas Valley before heading down towards the Monterey Peninsula. Oftentimes we’d stop in Castroville along the way for a special treat. The Route Through…

  • Deadly Fog

    I was thinking recently about a huge multi-vehicle accident that happened in Virginia a few months ago. That one involved 77 vehicles in thick fog. Of course it was a terrible tragedy that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. It also made me wonder whether it was the worst possible, or whether there were others even…

  • I Call Bull Shark

    What a glorious day for boating on the tidal Potomac River around Mason Neck, south of Fort Belvior. A friend asked it we’d like to join him and his family for a day on the water and of course I couldn’t turn down such a generous offer. We spent most of the afternoon on the…

  • Make a Bee Line

    I noticed an historical record that mentioned a late 19th Century railroad, the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway. That’s not what interested me though, it was the railroad’s nickname, the “Bee Line” What a wonderful name for a railway. I considered it a nice play on words aligning with the idiom “to make a…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 6 (And the Rest)

    All good things come to an end and before long our Kentucky adventure approached its natural conclusion. It was time to return home. I still had some parting opportunities as I left the state and then again as we steered through West Virginia towards the Mid Atlantic. East Wasn’t East Long ago in the early…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 4 (Power of Water)

    I noticed a common theme intertwined with water as we explored the southern tier of Kentucky, from Lake Cumberland to Mammoth Cave: water as an historical and modern source of power; water as a recreational activity; water as an obstacle and water as a force of nature. The Cumberland River and the Green River, both…

  • 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…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 2 (Blazing a Trail)

    Every schoolchild in the United States learned about the Cumberland Gap during history class. The Appalachian Mountains formed a natural barrier to western expansion during the colonial era. Even so, the lower section contained a convenient gap. Native Americans knew about it for centuries before Europeans ever arrived. Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and…

  • Zea Mays Everta

    I guess as the current heat wave bakes me, it forces me think about how nice it would be to sit inside an ice-cold movie theater at the moment. Right now I can’t do that. Still it would be splendid. Also, by association, when I think of a theater I think of popcorn. Aren’t vicarious…