Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Tag: Oklahoma

  • Counties in Oklahoma that I have Visited

    There are 77 Counties in Oklahoma – “The Sooner State“ Also be sure to see my United States County Counting Page for the rest of the states. I have visited 5 Counties = 6.5% of Counties in Oklahoma Counties visited are colored-in; counties still needing to be visited are blank.  Map created using Mob Rule.…

  • Cross-Country, Part 2 (Weatherford Art Thou?)

    A strange alignment revealed itself as I planned my cross-country trip. I used the same basic set of assumptions for each of the four potential routes. First I divided the total driving duration by five to come up with approximately equal days on the road. That would average about seven hours of driving each day…

  • Last Chance

    Speaking of odd town names (we were just speaking of those, weren’t we?), what about Last Chance? Every place deserved a last chance, I supposed. The U.S. Geographic Names Information System listed more than three hundred of them. Many — no surprise — aligned with mining claims. Also they frequently referenced ditches, streams and gulches,…

  • Biggest Unvisited

    A couple of years ago I wrote about my Airport Visits. At that time I came oh-so-close to capturing Love Field in Dallas, Texas. A weather delay and a change of route dashed that achievement. However a work trip to Dallas last week finally righted that wrong. I flew there on Southwest Airlines and naturally…

  • Newsworthy River Cutoffs

    Rivers can make great boundaries when they cooperate. Frequently they do not. These creatures of nature flow where they want to flow. Sometimes they erode deep furrows through solid rock, changing course only after eons pass. Other times they cross alluvial plains, shifting into multiple ephemeral streams simply awaiting the next flood. Problems will undoubtedly…

  • More Presidential County Sorting

    I found one surprising benefit to the tedious research that went into the recent Last Presidential Counties article. Now I could sort through the data differently and come up with several unexpected yet equally fascinating facts. It produced enough material for a second article. But don’t think of these as leftovers! They stand on their…

  • Old Greer County

    I talked about the longest postal route in the United States recently. That saga recounted Jim Ed Bull and his 187.6 mi (302 km) daily slog from Mangum, Oklahoma through the rural countryside. I also discovered an interesting bit of trivia during my research. This little corner of southwestern Oklahoma used to be part of…

  • Going Postal, Part 2

    As I mentioned in Part 1, the first installment dealt with physical post offices and this one will focus on methods of postal delivery. Both featured examples drawn primarily from the United States Postal Service’s “fun facts” page. Mule Pack animals would seem to be an antiquated method of mail delivery. Certainly horses, mules or…

  • Seriously Broken

    The number of broken place names seemed amazing. I didn’t know what led people to memorialize broken objects, just noted that they they did and it amused me. Broken Lakes, Broken Ridges, Broken Points, Broken Valleys and on and on. The list was so exhaustive that I had a terrible time limiting my selection. So…

  • Black Gold

    I noticed an interesting road at the Oklahoma State Fair Park called Black Gold Drive. I thought it was interesting how they’d intertwined their state history into the fairgrounds. Black Gold of course represents a natural resource found abundantly within the state. Other avenues there included Land Rush Street and the less-than-politically-correct Red Mans Path.…