Category: Terrain
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Largest Artificial Lakes
I had some fun with artificially created geographic features lately. First I featured the largest artificial islands and then islands joined artificially to the mainland. Now, I thought, I’d flip the concept to the opposite extreme. Instead of land on water, how about water on land? What might be the largest area of terrain intentionally…
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Largest Artificial Islands
My favorite inspiration, the random one-time visitor, struck again. Honestly I don’t know why any of them land on Twelve Mile Circle. This time the person wondered about the world’s largest artificial island. Repeat after me: search for “Wikipedia Largest Artificial Island.” Why come to 12MC when Wikipedia has a wonderful answer already prepared? I…
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Africa’s Lowpoint
I was poking around the CIA World Factbook (doesn’t everyone?) and came across an interesting page that listed “miscellaneous geographic information of significance not included elsewhere.” That’s wonderful, I thought, a page of international odds-and-ends that didn’t fit within the book’s prescribed format. Yes, I live for moments like that. It listed little tidbits on…
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No Names and Nameless
The article on Public Streets seemed generate more than the usual amount of interest and lots of great comments, as well as a hint of familiarity. Input from loyal reader David Overton sent me down an interesting tangent. He mentioned No Name Street, which he believed might be “another contender for ‘laziest street name’”. He…
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Dust Bowl Adventure, Part 5 (Epilogue)
It’s good to be back home. However, I will always cherish my brief journey to the Dust Bowl territory of the lower Great Plains. I enjoyed and appreciated the beauty of the emptiness, the towns appearing fifteen miles distant first noticeable by their distinctive grain elevators, dodging and getting caught in clouds of dust, and…
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Dust Bowl Adventure, Part 4 (On the Road)
The race series moved on to Colorado next. We’d intended to check into our hotel room in Lamar and sit by the pool, using that as an opportunity for our sole afternoon of rest. The hotel must have been busy the previous evening because our room wouldn’t be available for another three hours. We needed…
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Dust Bowl Adventure, Part 3 (Geo-Oddities Overflowing)
I completed an epic day of geo-oddity exploration earlier this week during the Dust Bowl trip. An Initial Cluster The first cluster sat near Black Mesa at the far northwestern corner of the Oklahoma panhandle. This small area may be unique in the state from a geographical perspective, with genuine mesas replacing more typical flat…