Twelve Mile Circle

  • The Visual Genius of Dave Oswald

    Dave Oswald isn’t a household name but he should be for aficionados of larger-than-life roadside sculptures. Mr. Oswald is the owner and proprietor of DWO Fiberglass of Sparta, Wisconsin (formerly of F.A.S.T Korp of the same town). He has been constructing these masterpieces along highways and byways since 1962, bringing joy to viewers across the…

  • Gee Thanks, Street View

    Recently Google Maps changed the script that bloggers can use to embed Street View images within their web pages. Unfortunately the new script is not backwards compatible. I learned this today when I went back to one of my previous articles and saw that the Street View images no longer existed. Instead there was nothing…

  • Chugwater

    There’s no telling what might register on my mind when I examine a map closely. Anything out-of-the-ordinary will jump to the forefront. It may be an odd shape like the perfect circle of Corona, a stranded bit of land like Carter Lake or a strange town name like Yeehaw Junction. It doesn’t matter. If it…

  • Northernmost England. Maybe.

    Berwick-upon-Tweed is the northernmost town in England. However, due to geography and history it also holds a lot in common with Scotland. First, notice it’s peculiar location along the River Tweed: specifically the northern side of the River Tweed. How did a little piece of England find its way to the opposite side of a…

  • What? Tonga Too?

    It was only four days ago that I bragged and crowed that I’d recorded a website visitor from the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Now, apparently Christmas came a little late on Twelve Mile Circle. Someone just landed here from Tonga! It wasn’t a grab-and-dash either. Our mystery visitor stuck around for three page…

  • Cross-Province Municipalities

    Usually towns that rest upon a border are distinct entities. They may have the appearance of a single contiguous municipality but often that’s deceiving. Two separate local governments actually administer the two separate portions. Kansas City along the Missouri/Kansas border comes to mind: one metropolitan area; same name; different municipal governments. However there are two…

  • And Now Vanuatu

    I love it when a new visitor arrives on Twelve Mile Circle from a previously unrepresented geographic location. Now I can focus on another spot on the globe while simultaneously carving a new notch on my visitor map. So today the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu checked in! Some of you are probably thinking,…

  • Llivia & Ile des Faisans

    Today marks a special occasion on Twelve Mile Circle, with its first ever guest blogger, Matthias Gries from France. He has researched a couple of French geo-anomalies that fit in well with the spirit and content of this blog and has written a lively narrative to accompany it. I hope you enjoy his effort —…

  • What counts as a visit?

    Every once in awhile this geo-oddity hobby of our gets some positive attention. The County Counting blog — one I follow regularly and include on my blogrole in the left column of this website — has a copy of a Boston Globe article that appeared recently. The article is called: “For those who keep a…

  • The Stranded Airport

    Twelve Mile Circle has a fascination with little chunks of land stranded on the “wrong” sides of rivers that occur when waterways change course. Usually this happens when severe flooding digs a new channel through a gradually sloping area of relatively soft soil. I noticed just such a spot in St. Joseph, Missouri awhile ago…


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.

  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…