Twelve Mile Circle
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The 45X90 Spot
A spot in the middle of a soybean field in north-central Wisconsin marks a confluence of great significance to people who appreciate strange geography. Two invisible lines cross near the small town of Poniatowski; one representing 45 degrees north latitude and one representing 90 degrees west longitude. The importance of this particular latitude is perhaps…
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Island Isolation doesn’t Require an Island
Juneau is located in Alaska’s southeastern panhandle and serves as the state capital. No roads connect Juneau to the outside world even though it’s clearly part of mainland North America. Access is by sea or by air only. Rather than describe the situation it’s easier to show it. Notice how Juneau hugs a narrow seaside…
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Split in Two: St. Martin Parish
St. Martin Parish, Louisiana poses an odd situation (map). Neighboring Iberia Parish jabs straight through the middle of St. Martin and cleaves it into two completely different portions separated by several miles. The St. Martin Parish Clerk of the Court explains that, “In 1868, Iberia Parish was formed from parts of St. Martin and St.…
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Four Corners
Four Corners is a unique spot in the United States. It’s the only U.S. location where four states join together with a common boundary – a quadripoint. Thus, a visitor can touch Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona simultaneously. Maps of the area show this situation clearly and anyone can get there by automobile with…
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Walk Across the Mississippi River
Can any mortal human walk across the Mississippi River? Yes. It’s easy to cross the Mississippi at its source. The Mississippi River begins its long journey in northern Minnesota at Lake Itasca. Here the Mississippi starts as a small stream. Just about anyone can stroll right across it using conveniently placed stepping-stones. This humble beginning…
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Inconvenient Rivers
Those pesky rivers! People go to great trouble to designate a river as a boundary, decide who has ownership or how it will be split, draw all those maps, and then the river has the audacity to jump its bank and form a new channel. Does this mean the boundary automatically changes too? Of course…
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Anomalies In and Around Washington, DC
Geo-oddities exist everywhere. I thought I would focus some love and attention on a few of them near where I live. Likely you can find unusual features where you live too. Let’s take a closer look at some of them. Obsolete Boundary Stones The District of Columbia once covered an exact ten miles square. In…
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Point Roberts – Stranded by an International Border
Point Roberts, Washington cannot be reached by land from the rest of the United States. One must drive first into Canada, curve around Boundary Bay, and then cross the border again to re-enter the United States at this remote corner. The establishment of a border between the United States and Canada along the 49th parallel…
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Island on an Island
Sometimes an island has a pond or lake that also happens to contain an island. Twelve Mile Circle likes to call that second, subsidiary island an “island-on-an-island.” Beaver Island, Michigan Beaver Island is the largest on Lake Michigan. It contains several lowlands, marshy areas, and ponds which makes it a perfect candidate for islands-on-an-island. We…
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Pardon the Dust
You’ll notice some unusual activity on the Twelve Mile Circle over the next several days. I will be transferring some of my “old” geography pages into blog format to make it easier for me to manage content and so viewers won’t have to ping back-and-forth between sites. Twelve Mile Circle grew up from a series…
Latest Comments
Bill you have no idea how much this insane rule has lived rent free in my friends’ and I’s heads…
I know for a fact, based on communication with officers with PPB, one being my cousin who is now retired,…
In Tennessee, the Central / Eastern time zone boundary follows the eastern boundaries of Marion, Sequatchie, Bledsoe, Cumberland, Fentress, and…
Those annals were written in Donegal. How could they know that there wasn’t hundreds of other similar settlements throughout the…
Thank you, very helpful!