{"id":1664,"date":"2009-07-03T12:16:12","date_gmt":"2009-07-03T17:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=1664"},"modified":"2022-05-31T07:01:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T12:01:01","slug":"1000-counties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/1000-counties\/","title":{"rendered":"1,000!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is this man standing here foolishly next to an otherwise nondescript road sign, waist-high in weeds by a railroad track? What is so special about Crawford County, Wisconsin? Well, nothing much, although I’m sure its residents would say otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1,000th<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Actually this was a very special location for me. It represented the 1,000th county in the United States that I’ve visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why Counties?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I achieved my 50th and final of the United States<\/a> a number of years ago. But I didn’t want to stop counting. Even so, adding to my international tally wasn’t going to happen very quickly with small children in tow. Instead, I turned my attention to the tertiary governing units of the United States. Those included the individual counties and independent cities that collectively cover the geography of each State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This produced a remarkably different perspective. Instead of my map being completely covered with every State visited, it looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Counties<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well that’s hardly any territory at all. I went from smug to humbled in a single stroke. Sure, I’d been to every State but sometimes just barely. I’d missed huge swaths of the American landscape. Thus began a quest to visit every one of those counties no matter how small, isolated or insignificant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No Simple Task<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Currently, as I write this in July 2009, there are 3,141 county-equivalent geographic units in the United States. This including formally designated counties, the wacky little independent cities found primarily in Virginia, plus the District of Columbia. There are also a number of other complexities including States where the county structure exists mainly as a formality, or where they are called boroughs or parishes. So this count considers the units designated by the U.S. Census Bureau for its decennial survey and for other statistical purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, 3,141 is not a static number. New counties are added over time (e.g., Broomfield County, Colorado). Additionally, independent cities sometimes meld into their surrounding counties ( e.g., Clifton Forge, Virginia). Both of those have occurred within the last few years. Actually I just noticed I need to revisit this number. It appears a couple of changes have taken place in Alaska within the last year. Consider 3,141 approximate for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now To Crawford<\/h2>\n\n\n\n