Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Fewest County Borders – Part II: Peninsulas (Door Co., WI)

    Only islands have the potential for zero county borders. However, what if we extend the search from zero borders to one border? The United States contains no fully-landlocked counties with a single border. Independent Cities Don’t Count Several independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia do meet this definition though. Examples include Fairfax City surrounded…

  • Fewest County Borders – Part I: Hawaii County, HI

    Technically the fewest number of county borders is zero, a situation that occurs frequently on islands. As an example, county borders do not split individual Hawaiian islands except for Molokai. Most of it sits within Maui County. Even so, it also cradles minuscule Kalowao County – the smallest county in the United States – on…

  • Howder Street, Hillsdale, Michigan

    This website is howderfamily.com. Therefore, anything related to the Howder family is fair game. So I’m going to take an opportunity to feature something that crosses a couple of my interests, geography and genealogy. In Hillsdale Michigan I found a three-block road named Howder Street. Those of you with common surnames are probably saying “so…

  • Michigan’s Lost Peninsula

    One of the oddities that interests me is when a territory is broken into two or more non-contiguous pieces.  Some become rather famous, like the small chunk of the United States in northern Minnesota that can only be reached via Canada at Lake of the Woods. A similar condition exists between and within certain states…

  • Introduction and Purpose

    Welcome to the Twelve Mile Circle! This site highlights unusual places on maps that just don’t seem to make sense.  These may include state highpoints, non-contiguous boundaries, latitude/longitude confluences, and other trivial geographic points. This serves as a companion to my travel pages. Over there I detail some of my actual trips to Strange Geography…

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…