Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Blank to Blank

    I focused on towns named Welcome in a recent article here on Twelve Mile Circle, with specific attention to a sign outside of one in particular located in North Carolina: Welcome to Welcome. I wondered if other towns could cobble together similar symmetries at their city limits. All I could envision at the time was…

  • Iron Butt Rally

    I’d had a vague notion of the premise behind the Iron Butt Association, a loose organization of people addicted to extremely long-distance motorcycle rides. But the basic membership, the absolutely easiest level, requires a documented ride of 1,000 miles (1,600 km) within 24 hours. They call it the SaddleSore 1000. Rides quickly increase in difficulty…

  • The Smallest Tribe

    What is the smallest tribe of Native Americans in the United States? It’s more difficult to answer than one might imagine. The definition varies. It could be based on population or territory as an example. I’ll look at both. Recognition by the Federal government could add another dimension to the question. However, some State-recognized tribes…

  • Welcome

    Welcome. It sounds so welcoming when used as a town name, as if the town founders and developers genuinely wanted visitors and residents alike to enjoy their time there. It sets a nice tone and a pleasant expectation. Settlements named Welcome exist in a number of areas. I’m actually a little surprised there aren’t a…

  • Highest Lowpoints

    There’s a tendency to wonder about the highest point of land as one examines an area from afar. People make quite a hobby out of of collecting visits to those highpoints even for remarkably small subunits. I’ve been know to do that myself and I’ve featured the results of my efforts on these very pages.…

  • Divine Apartments

    I can’t tell if I live in an area overflowing with geo-oddities or whether my personality reflexively uncovers unusual situations wherever I happen to locate myself. Would I be equally adept at mining unusual patterns in London, Toronto, Sydney or Dakar? Perhaps. I’ve argued before that weirdness exists everywhere. Even so, my home area provides…

  • Announcing the Completely New Index

    It’s a big day on Twelve Mile Circle. I’m ready to publicly debut a new version of my Complete Index page after it’s “soft opening” over the weekend. I figured a geo-oddities website deserved a decent geocoded index with an intuitive Google Maps interface. I didn’t figure it would take almost a year to accomplish…

  • Pipeline Crossroads of the World

    It seems like every time I run an article about an odd appendage cobbled to the boundaries of a U.S. county, an interested reader brings an equally unusual shape to my attention. That’s great — keep them coming! The latest example arrived courtesy of Scott Surgent. He made a comment on the Merrick Strip article:…

  • Ireland’s Narrow Little Neck

    I looked at the Emerald Isle and noticed an anomaly. Northern Ireland comes very close to separating the tip of the Republic of Ireland from the remainder of its body. The neck constricts to perhaps as few as ten kilometres at its narrowest point between the border and the sea. It’s even shorter if we…

  • Oldest Town in Ireland

    I don’t know why I torture myself. Nothing good can come from this, and yet I can’t resist. I noticed a place reputed to be the “oldest town in Ireland” as I investigated an unusual geographic feature. These types of claims are notoriously tenuous and probably doubly-so in a land as ancient as Ireland. At…

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