Category: U.S. States

  • Political Access

    No less than the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) made an interesting claim. They called it “Other Interstate Trivia, but I considered it Gold. “All but five state capitals are served by the interstate highway system. Those that are not served are: Juneau, AK; Dover, DE; Jefferson City, MO; Carson City, NV;…

  • Bad Boys Revisited

    Everybody sing along! “Bad boys, bad boys / Watcha gonna do / Watcha gonna do when they come for you?” That’s right, if I’m quoting lyrics from Inner Circle then I must be talking about the long-running television show COPS again. Apparently more 12MC readers are fans of COPS than I ever imagined when I…

  • The Largest Smallest US County (population)

    If the “Largest Smallest United States County” sounds fleetingly familiar, you are correct. I covered a variant of this a couple of years ago. Count yourself among the small group of 12MC devotees who have been following along and paying attention for quite awhile. Recently I was contacted by reader Ariel who wondered if I’d…

  • 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…

  • Victory: County Lines on Google Maps

    The day has finally arrived. Google just added United States county lines (and more!) to its maps. I’ve been hoping for this development for the last two years. I first pushed readers to express their interest way back in February 2010. I’d mention it periodically (OK, whined), usually within the context of “wouldn’t it be…

  • Smokey and the Bandit’s Route

    Also see the companion article: 10-4 Good Buddy. Ah, the 1970’s, that cultural hangover. Disco ruled a world of polyester. A sea of avocado and harvest gold shag carpeting stretched from coast-to-coast. A CB radio craze allowed wannabe truckers to exclaim “ten four good buddy”. Who could forget such heady times? A purely escapist movie…

  • A Secret Revealed

    Don’t you hate misleading headlines? I’m not really revealing a secret because it hides in plain sight. The information was publicly available as long as one knew where to search for it. I’m talking about a so-called “secret” Interstate highway route recently outed by the District Department of Transportation in Washington, DC. Unsigned Interstates There…

  • Warning at the Border

    I’m still catching-up from my brief holiday hiatus from Twelve Mile Circle responsibilities. It serves me right for thinking I could keep a low profile. So much geo-weirdness happens in the world at any given time. I imagine many of you saw the mainstream press coverage of a few legislators in New Hampshire proposing warning…

  • Reflecting on 2011

    I’m progressing better than I expected with my off-season website maintenance plan. It has provided an unexpected opportunity to hammer-out one final post in 2011. I’ve decided to use the downtime to reflect on accomplishments on Twelve Mile Circle during the last year. I posted 156 articles over the year — generally three per week…

  • Full Grassley

    So I realize it’s only Day 1 of my off-season hiatus. Nonetheless, I’ll poke my head up briefly before hibernating again. I want to make sure 12MC readers saw a recent comment posted by John Deeth of Iowa. Comments often fall through the cracks because they don’t appear in newsreaders. And doubly so at this…