Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • The Returns Are In. Maybe.

    I’ve been meaning to fill you in on the results of a referendum I mentioned a few weeks ago. Approval would have moved the Benton Co., Washington county seat to from Prosser to Kennewick. The vote happened more than a week ago. Only now do I feel there’s enough certainty to announce a probable result.…

  • Beaver Island in the News

    There’s an interesting human interest story about Beaver Island, Michigan making the rounds via the Associated Press, “Technology a blessing, a curse for remote island.” I mention it both because it’s an interesting narrative and because I’m one of very few people who’ve actually visited Beaver Island. If you care to know more about that…

  • Jackson’s Mill (39°05’49.19″N, 80°28’00.72″W)

    It’s not everyday that an advertisement comes complete with a mysterious Latitude/Longitude coordinate. My local newspaper included a special section on the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Civil War in the United States. This image from West Virginia filled the entire back page. The copy reads, “A nation was nearly torn in half. A state…

  • The Impossible 5K

    I was watching the Weather Channel on Sunday morning — yes that’s something I do for fun, thus proving I’m a geek on so many different levels — and they cut to a story on an event called “The Impossible 5K.” My wife is a runner and I pick up a lot of new counties…

  • Third Anniversary

    Has it really been three years already? Indeed, I started Twelve Mile Circle in November 2007 with a vague notion that it would be about “geo-oddities.” I didn’t know how long I would keep it going. Blog lifespans are notoriously short. I recall personal concerns and doubts that I might not find enough topics, that…

  • Why THIS Spot?

    What does this mean to you? n 45°55.145′ w 090°05.011′ That’s what the query said when I spotted it in my blog access logs. What an oddly precise item to drop into a search engine. The visitor came to Twelve Mile Circle by following a Google link, one of only five in existence. You know…

  • Tunnel Under the Border

    Tunnels under the border aren’t anything new but they’re usually about smuggling. I can think of several examples off the top of my head including tunnels between Mexico and the USA for drugs, Egypt and Gaza for basic goods, and the former East and West Berlin for people. Those are all interesting and I don’t…

  • W Towns Outside Boston

    Reader “HH” brought an interesting situation outside of Boston, Massachusetts, to my attention this week. He discovered this many years ago and has been wondering about it every since. On the surface it doesn’t seem like much, just a ride along U.S. Route 20. It has a bit of historic importance in its own right,…

  • Think of the Children

    Regular readers should feel free to skip today’s article. It’s intended to help out a very specific segment of one-time visitors. It’s time for another installment of “Help the Kids with their Homework.”™ The question I keep seeing likely derives from a mathematics assignment, but it also has a nice geography twist. It’s been all-the-rage…

  • Revisiting the Swap

    It’s not every day that I get an opportunity for a do-over. I was in Williamsburg, Virginia during the early part of this week. It’s so tantalizingly close to The Swap that I featured a few weeks ago. I travel to Williamsburg about once a year on business and I have mixed feelings about the…

Latest Comments

  1. I’ve enjoyed your Hawaii reports. I’ve visited 4 times, between 1976 and 2007, but no plans to return. In 1976…

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

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

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