Category: Terrain
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Clapper Bridges
A simple form of bridge design features a series of stone slabs set atop rock pilings. It ranks maybe one rung up from stepping stones placed in the water or logs laid from bank-to-bank on the evolutionary scale of bridge design. Regardless, it certainly falls within the more primitive bridge construction types imaginable. In England,…
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Saint Martin Observations
I led-off with Saint Martin geo-oddities as one would expect on Twelve Mile Circle. However, with that obligation safely behind me I can now begin to act more like a “normal” tourist, or as close to normal as I can muster. I’m not typical when it comes to holiday travels, as you’ve undoubtedly learned while…
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Geo-Oddities of Portland, Oregon
Every once in awhile I’m honored to share content or even an entire guest post written by a loyal Twelve Mile Circle reader. We are very lucky today. Marc Alifanz contributes his expert knowledge of Geo-oddities in Portland, Oregon. Marc is an experienced blogger both in his professional and personal life and as he demonstrates…
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Potomac in Oregon
Is there a Potomac River in Oregon? I’m only aware of the one that forms a boundary between Virginia and Maryland/Washington, DC and out to West Virginia. However, I’ve been receiving a slow but steady trickle of search engine queries on the topic for the last several weeks. Maybe I’m missing something. Is there a…
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Historic Fort Lincoln
Most of you will probably want to skip down a bit and start reading at the map. Longtime readers may remember when I went down to Texas for my grandmother’s 100th birthday party. Well, sorrowfully Bernice Sylvester McGaughy passed away a few days ago. She was 102 years old and in good health both physically…
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What’s “Almost Heaven?”
We examined a song containing a blatant geographic inaccuracy in a recent article, “In Them Old Cotton Fields.” I left a hint for readers when I stated that I too took offense at a song with an equally irritating error, one having to do with the Mountain State. Many of you probably knew the answer…
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Random Canadian
The pursuit of geo-oddities is a passion of mine, but not my only one. History, and by extension personal history (genealogy) is another. Sometimes the two intertwine. I’ve long known of a family line tangential to mine that associated with the early history of Canadian, Texas (map). Their involvement began with the founding of Canadian…
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Random Canada
Many months ago I toyed with an idea that I called “Throw the Dart”. That’s where I’d go into Google Street View, drop the cursor onto some random part of the world and then try to create an article from thin air. It worked pretty well in October 2009 when I hit a spot outside…
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Turlough
Sometimes odd geography intersects with odd geology. One particularly rare example occurs on the island of Ireland. It’s called a Turlough or Turlach. Described very simply, it’s an ephemeral lake that appears during the wetter months of autumn through springtime and dries-up during the summer. Most of the examples happen west of the River Shannon.…
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Coteau des Prairies
I poured over maps for a project that’s been slowly forming at the back of my mind — I know that must come as a surprise — and I noticed an anomaly I’d overlooked in all the other times I’d examined this particular patch. I think it had to do more with the vertical scale…