Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Public Street

    I run into various oddities as I prepare 12MC articles so I catalog them and pack them away for future exploration. This happened recently as I compiled International Capitals in the USA. I poked around a promising area in Brooksville, Florida and found something completely unexpected. A street called Public Street. This struck me as…

  • Jeff Davis

    I received an interesting query from loyal reader “Katy” via the 12MC Google+(1) account the other day. She wanted to find towns named after people that included the namesakes’ first and last names.(2) Several possibilities came to mind and one name in particular, Jefferson Davis, kept recurring. Jefferson Davis — which I’ll mention primarily for…

  • Race Across America

    The recently concluded Dust Bowl Marathon Series continues to play on my mind. Five towns served as a home base during the event. Of course, each one of them rolled out the red carpet for us. Ulysses, Kansas stepped it up an additional notch above the high bar exhibited by the rest. They seemed to…

  • Most Remote Chinese Restaurants in North America

    I wonder if I’ve observed a genuine phenomenon or if I’m falling into a confirmation bias trap. Everywhere I travel, and I meander through extremely rural areas as a matter of preference, I notice Chinese restaurants. This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this peculiarity. I posted Not Fusion, CONfusion a couple of years ago.…

  • International Capitals in the USA

    The capital of a nation is often its most important city, or certainly one that citizens would recognize by name if not. Place that exact name into another nation and its significance would almost always drop. I wondered if I could find the name of every other capital city within the physical boundaries of the…

  • Shaped Like it Sounds

    I enjoyed filling in newly captured counties on my county counting map as a result of the recent Dust Bowl trip. The newly drawn map pleased me immensely, a nice block of color added to a previously-empty quadrant. Unfortunately I left behind a couple of doughnut-hole counties that I’ll probably never capture. That’s fine. I’ve…

  • Odds and Ends 7

    A number of items have come up recently although none large enough for a single article. It’s time to resurrect a recurring theme. The 12MC “Odds and Ends” compilation ratchets up to #7. Google Maps Treasure Map By now everyone should be aware of the April Fools layer on Google Maps yesterday. It created a…

  • Alternate States

    I’ve long maintained that I write Twelve Mile Circle primarily for myself although I’m glad other people seem to enjoy coming along for the ride. Case in point, why else would I devote five separate articles to my recent Dust Bowl Experience when I know that 12MC readers prefer geography contests and the like? Nonetheless…

  • 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…

  • 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…

Latest Comments

  1. The British flag continues to fly at Roche Harbor, a couple miles north of English Camp.

  3. Been there Once for a few years. In 76 &77. Ran cooperative store. Even though it was very isolated It…

  4. As an Alaskan I always wondered why Interstates were a big deal. From my point of view a road went…