Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • 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…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 1 (Getting There)

    Every great adventure had to start with a first step. I planned to explore southeastern Kentucky and now I had to get there. Part of the appeal, frankly, was not having to deal with an airline or an airport. I could drive to Kentucky. Theoretically. And so the long drive began I’d always understood intellectually…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • He Went Thata Way

    One little neighborhood in Las Vegas, Nevada fills me with such joy. It first came to my attention for Supreme Court and then played a starring role as Curdsen Way in Little Miss Muffet. Now it’s inspired me a final time with Thata Way. It’s pure geo-oddity gold. I’ve pretty well exhausted the neighborhood, though.…

  • Island Became Mainland

    Twelve Mile Circle is always up for a good challenge. So, loyal reader Greg laid-down the gauntlet yesterday in the friendliest way possible. He commented on Largest Artificial Islands: “A more common phenomenon, surely, must be islands joined to a mainland by landfill. So what about the opposite of this post, the largest former islands?“…

  • 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…

  • Cocibolca

    English speakers know Lago Cocibolca — or “Sweet Sea” in the language of aboriginal settlers — by a different name: Lake Nicaragua. I’ve long been fascinated by Lake Nicaragua and I would love to go there someday. Thus, recent news of yet another grand plan to construct a canal renewed my interest. If completed it…

  • The Trouble with Records

    I try to approach “-est” claims skeptically. Those are ones that purport to be the largest, tallest, longest, smallest, fastest, and so on. Often I’ll use qualifiers such as likely, possibly, or supposedly, to hedge my bets even when fact-checking seems to confirm an assertion. Predictably, someone in the 12MC audience will discover a more…

Latest Comments

  2. what is the total population that lives now in the land given back to Virginia should it be part of…

  5. Park ranger at Chalmette (New Orleans) Battlefield let me pull up the Union Jack 20 years ago. My dad would…