Geographical Oddities

[GorillaMan]

[QUOTE=CC]
Not really an oddity, unless you’re unaware of certain geographical truths, as I was…

Recently, I spoke with a young woman who was playing bagpipes at the Chicago Art Institute. She had said she was from Galicia, Spain. I expressed wonder that there should be Spanish bagpipes, seeing as it was essentially an Irish cultural thing - in my mind.
[/QUOTE]

I fully understand how the automatic association of bagpipes with Scotland or Ireland occurs. But merely the contents of this Wiki article is enough to show how mistaken it is!

[bonzer]

[QUOTE=matt_mcl]
Here’s one on a slightly more local scale. Here in Montreal we have something called “Montreal north.”
[/QUOTE]

This is reminiscent of an observation I’ve recently made about Paris Metro maps (!).

If you look at very early historical maps of Paris, they tend to be aligned such that the Seine runs horizontally right-left across the page. Since the river actually runs SE-NW past the Ile de la Cité, that skews north out by about 45 degrees. It appears that in about 1700 there was a decisive shift in style that then aligned Parisian maps to north rather than the river.
Jump forward to today. Unlike in London, where the official Tube map has become universal, Parisians don’t quite seem able to agree on a layout for Metro maps. Many of the versions acknowledge Beck’s principles, but there’s a major split in the designs: does Line 1 run horizontally (as an analogue of the Central Line) or at 45 degrees?
I find it amusing that they’re essentially dithering over the same design issue that their cartographic predecessors evidently worried about three centuries ago.

[Sternvogel]

[Quote=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
In fact, when Abraham Lincoln was growing up his family moved from western Kentucky, to Ohio, and finally to Illinois, and the total distance moved was relatively minor.
[/Quote]

Actually, Abe was never an Ohioan, but was an Indiana resident from 1816 (when his family moved from his birthplace of Hodgenville, KY) until 1830 (when the future president relocated to Illinois). In anticipation of the coming bicentennial of the Great Emancipator’s 1809 birth, the Hoosier State is currently placing “Lincoln’s Boyhood Home” signs at 66 boundary crossings.

[Quote=Darryl Lict]
And yeah, the casino is on the Nevada side. If it wasn’t in Reno county, you could probably also have hookers on one side.
[/Quote]

Washoe is the name of the county which contains both the city of Reno and the Nevada portion of the CalNeva resort. On a related note:

[Quote=OldGuy]
I believe Jacksonville FL is coincident with the city
[/Quote]

Jacksonville’s government is consolidated with that of Duval County.

[Quote=OldGuy]
The Northwest Territories (starting in what is now Ohio and extending west) were originally in the northwest of the US.
[/Quote]

Be careful to avoid confusing the old Northwest Territory of the United States with the still-extant Northwest Territories of Canada.

[Quote=Giles]
I’m aware of just two cases in the USA where a city spreads into more than one county, but doesn’t follow county boundaries: there may be more, but it’s certainly unusual. They are the city I live in (Columbus, Ohio – the county seat of Franklin County, but extending into Delaware and Fairfield Counties) and the city I work in (Dublin, Ohio – mostly in Franklin County, but with parts in Delaware and Union Counties).
[/Quote]

In the northern part of the state, Vermilion spans Lorain and Erie counties. I also remember reading (can’t find a cite) that the Vermilion school district served part of a third county, or that some residents of Vermilion had to go to a third county for their education.

At any rate, Erie County’s seat is Sandusky, but to the west, there is a Sandusky County (the seat is Fremont). Similar confusions in Ohio geography:

[ul]Toledo is the seat of Lucas County, while the village of Lucas is in Richland County.[/ul]

[ul]Bellefontaine (pronounced Bell-FOUNT-ain) is the seat of Logan County, while Logan is the seat of Hocking County.[/ul]

[ul]Cincinnati is the seat of Hamilton County, while Hamilton is the seat of Butler County.[/ul]

[ul]Lebanon is the seat of Warren County, while Warren is the seat of Trumbull County.[/ul]

[ul]There is a county seat named Washington Court House, as well as a Washington County. However, Washington County’s seat is Marietta, while the courthouse in Washington Court House serves residents and scofflaws of Fayette County.[/ul]

[CC]

[QUOTE=Sternvogel]
…In anticipation of the coming bicentennial of the Great Emancipator’s 1809 birth…
[/QUOTE]

Speaking of hijacks and coincidents, keep in mind that that particular date will also be the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth. Talk about your influential moments.
xo, C.

[Polycarp]

[QUOTE=CC]
Speaking of hijacks and coincidents, keep in mind that that particular date will also be the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth. Talk about your influential moments.
xo, C.
[/QUOTE]

An auspicious day.

English writers/scholars C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on the same day and year, which is usually remembered for another reason.

[Zoe]

They both died on that day? I knew about C.S. Lewis, but not about Huxley, unless I’d just forgotten.

Not many remember when Audrey Hepburn died either – though certainly not as memorable a day.

[Acsenray]

[QUOTE=Sternvogel]
I also remember reading (can’t find a cite) that the Vermilion school district served part of a third county, or that some residents of Vermilion had to go to a third county for their education.
[/quote]

School districts in Ohio are independent governmental entities and their boundaries frequently deviate from underlying county/city/township boundaries.

Similar confusions in Ohio geography

I once created a Wikipedia page of a hundred or so oddities in the naming of Ohio cities and counties, but it was deleted as being trivial.

There is a county seat named Washington Court House

Although Washington Court House has always been known by that name, until a couple of years ago the official name of the city was the “City of Washington.” Then they adopted a new charter with the name that everyone had been using all along.

[aktep]

[QUOTE=acsenray]

I once created a Wikipedia page of a hundred or so oddities in the naming of Ohio cities and counties, but it was deleted as being trivial.

[/QUOTE]

Texas is the same way. About the only thing you can count on is, if there is a city and county with the same name, and that name is not “Dallas”, then they are nowhere near each other.

[Liberal]

The southernmost state is Hawaii. The nation closest to the US that doesn’t border it is Russia.

[Baffle]

The three countries nearest to Canada, however, are the United States, France, and Denmark.

[Chronos]

Texas is the same way. About the only thing you can count on is, if there is a city and county with the same name, and that name is not “Dallas”, then they are nowhere near each other.

Ohio isn’t quite that bad. Athens is, at least, the seat of Athens County.

[Acsenray]

[QUOTE=Baffle]
The three countries nearest to Canada, however, are the United States, France, and Denmark.
[/QUOTE]

Denmark, because of Greenland, and France, because …?

[Baffle]

Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

[LotSeven_K]

[QUOTE=Polycarp]
New York has a couple, all AFAIK villages (= “towns” elsewhere, i.e., municipalities smaller than cities):
[ul][li]Saranac Lake – Franklin and Essex Counties[/li][li]Keeseville – Clinton and Essex Counties[/li][li]Unadilla – Otsego and Delaware Counties[/li][li]Gowanda – Erie and Cattaraugus Counties[/li][li]Earlville – Madison and Chenango Counties[/li][li]Dolgeville – Herkimer and Fulton Counties[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]

If I may add another: Sioux Falls, SD is in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties.

[Polycarp]

[QUOTE=Liberal]
The southernmost state is Hawaii. The nation closest to the US that doesn’t border it is Russia.
[/QUOTE]

I think that (a) the Bahamas are often regarded as beating out Russia by a few miles and (b) it depends to a great deal on your definition of “neighboring.”

[Frank]

[QUOTE=acsenray]
I don’t know whether there’s a comprehensive list, but we can start one:

• San Francisco
• New Orleans
• Philadelphia
• New York (each borough is coterminous with a county)
  [/QUOTE]

Day late and a dollar short, but:

Both Denver and Broomfield are consolidated city/county governments. Broomfield was in four(!) counties before it consolidated.

Aurora, which some anticipate will be the largest city in the state in 20 or 40 years, is in three counties. It will probably not consolidate, as it is not subject to the Poundstone Amendment until it does, and can continue to gobble land and population. This didn’t matter for Broomfield; they just wanted to neaten up government.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

[QUOTE=Polycarp]
I think that (a) the Bahamas are often regarded as beating out Russia by a few miles and (b) it depends to a great deal on your definition of “neighboring.”
[/QUOTE]

Big Diomede island (Russia) and Little Diomede island (Alaska, USA) are less than 2.25 miles apart. Google Maps

I believe that the nearest pieces of US and Bahamas land are quite a bit further apart than that (Florida coast, Bimini). 60 miles at least

[Ellen_Cherry]

Kentucky’s two largest cities, Louisville and Lexington, have consolidated city/county governments; the county line is the same as the city limits. Lexington was one of the first in the nation to consolidate; in 1973.

In reference to the Kentucky Bend:

In the 1820s, a joint Kentucky-Tennessee commission (formed after a bitter border dispute that included an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and even a threat of forced occupation by Kentucky) finally drew a state line that cuts right through the river’s two hairpin bends, creating an isolated “peninsula” that belongs to Kentucky but is almost completely surrounded by the river.

Today, the people of the bend are mostly farmers. In this segment, we visit some of them and learn how the odd geography of the region has shaped their lives.

Source: Kentucky Educational Television series Kentucky Life

[Figaro]

[QUOTE=RunSilent]
Baltimore, Maryland is not in any county.
[/QUOTE]
Wow - I grew up around there and never knew that! Since the city is on all of my balto county maps, I always assumed it was included… :o

[Great_Dave]

Imagine a phone call placed from a West Coast state to an East Coast state-

WC: What time is it?
EC: 2:50.
WC: Oh, I better go- I only have 10 minutes to get to my 2 o’clock appointment.

@CC

Also, if anyone remembers MAD magazine when it was funny (even long before Saturday Night Live was funny) there was a feature called “Strangely Believe It.” In it, it was pointed out that there’s a woman in Rhode Island who has a potato farm larger than the entire state of Texas. For years, I was puzzled by that.