{"id":5,"date":"2007-11-11T07:25:51","date_gmt":"2007-11-11T12:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=5"},"modified":"2021-11-25T10:06:37","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T15:06:37","slug":"fewest-county-borders-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/fewest-county-borders-hawaii\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewest County Borders \u2013 Part I:  Hawaii County, HI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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 \u2013 the smallest county in the United States \u2013 on its northern shore. Hawaii seems to be a good place to start exploring this situation further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3828200.3159141075!2d-159.74985752946205!3d20.445597945018946!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x7bffdb064f79e005%3A0x4b7782d274cc8628!2sHawaii!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1611527638809!5m2!1sen!2sus\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen=\"\" aria-hidden=\"false\" tabindex=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By definition Islands are non-contiguous unless someone decides to draw an artificial line across it like on Molokai. Otherwise it remains self-contained without any borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let&#8217;s take a closer look at these islands. Let&#8217;s decide which one of the remaining three counties might be the best candidate for \u201cfewest\u201d borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Big Island<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thewidewideworld\/30002404138\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1811\/30002404138_a7a49a529e_b.jpg\" alt=\"Big Island, Hawaii. Photo by Craig James; (CC BY-NC 2.0)\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Hawaii&#8217;s &#8220;Big Island&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of Honolulu County involves the island of Oahu. However it also administers a string of minor islands, shoals and reefs stretching hundreds of miles northwest to Kure. Kauai County comes closer with just the island of Kauai and its nearby neighbor, Nihau. That leaves Hawaii County, composed solely of the \u201cBig Island\u201d of the same name, as a possible candidate. It is a county, it is self contained, and it involves a single chunk of earth surrounded by water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other Possibilities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We should also consider candidates within the continental United States. The Massachusetts counties of Dukes (Martha&#8217;s Vineyard) and Nantucket spread over open water. Nonetheless, both contain minor islands along with their more famous brethren. Island County, Washington also comes close with two islands: Whidbey and Camano. Likewise Alaska&#8217;s Kodiak and Aleutian counties along with those that line the <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=22386\">Inside Passage<\/a>\u00a0spread across open water but\u00a0all contain numerous islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we must split hairs and say which county in the United States has the fewest borders, Hawaii County would be as good a candidate as any. However this is really just a trivia question, and a pretty lame one at that. Too many geography quizzes depend upon Hawaii as a stumper. Things get more interesting on the mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Articles in the Fewest County Borders Series<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"\/blog\/?p=5\">Hawaii County<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/blog\/?p=6\">Peninsulas (Door County)<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/blog\/?p=7\">Red Lake County<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u2013 the smallest county in the United States \u2013 on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,22],"tags":[14,1075,5360,12,13,15,16],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borders","category-counties","tag-alaska","tag-big-island","tag-borders","tag-boundaries","tag-hawaii","tag-massachusetts","tag-washington"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fewest County Borders \u2013 Part I: Hawaii County, HI - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Technically the fewest number of county borders is zero, a situation that occurs frequently on islands. There are several examples.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/fewest-county-borders-hawaii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fewest County Borders \u2013 Part I: Hawaii County, HI - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Technically the fewest number of county borders is zero, a situation that occurs frequently on islands. 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