# Largest US city that doesn't border on another municipality? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2006, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891 "2006-04-16T17:47:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ctr221180](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@ctr221180](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctr221180)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/21 "2006-04-17T06:50:24Z")
My guess for the lower 48 states would be Bakersfield, California which is larger than Spokane and is only bordered by two CDPs, Oildale and Rosedale. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/22 "2006-04-17T13:19:46Z")
Just pointing out that in Massachusetts and some other states, there is NO ‘unincorporated’ land. Every square inch belongs to a municipality. Some of these municipalities are rural ‘towns’ where the town center is a crossroads with a gas station, some are suburbs, and some are urban ‘cities’, but they’re all municipalities of some sort. Not sure how this would change the OP’s formulation. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/23 "2006-04-17T13:24:27Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Just pointing out that in Massachusetts and some other states, there is NO ‘unincorporated’ land. Every square inch belongs to a municipality. Some of these municipalities are rural ‘towns’ where the town center is a crossroads with a gas station, some are suburbs, and some are urban ‘cities’, but they’re all municipalities of some sort. > Not sure how this would change the OP’s formulation. It took me several trips to Massachusetts to realize that the “towns” were really “townships.” ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/24 "2006-04-17T14:23:49Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Boise seems to be adjacent to a town called Garden City. I can’t say for sure, as mapquest’s maps and my road atlas don’t show city limits. You are indeed correct. Garden City is a separate municipality from Boise (though many people around here just think it’s part of Boise anyway), is virtually surrounded by Boise and the borders of each touch one another on the north, the south and the east. Even the western outskirts of Boise are closing in on Garden City as new land is annexed in this direction. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/25 "2006-04-17T16:16:46Z")
Fresno, CA? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/26 "2006-04-17T16:36:17Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > I’d not be inclined to count Honolulu. I’m not sure where the city limits are precisely, but if one uses the borders of the Honolulu district, that abuts it up against Halawa Heights and Foster Village in the Ewa district. > > And if the city limits of Honolulu are different from the limits of the Honolulu district, then there are tons of named enclaves within the Honolulu district, which I suspect would be municipalities in their own right. Waikiki, Manoa, St. Louis Heights, to name but a few. In gerneral, there are only four municipalities in Hawaii: Hawaii is its own municipality and island, Honolulu, which is all of Oahu, Kauai, which is Kauai and Niihau, and Maui, which is Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe. Ewa Beach, Kohala, Kula, etc, may be called towns or cities but they have no independant political power. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/27 "2006-04-17T17:04:07Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Fresno, CA? Nope. It abuts Clovis. But it might be in the running among cities with the fewest neigbors. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/28 "2006-04-17T20:49:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Nope. It abuts Clovis. But it might be in the running among cities with the fewest neigbors. Oh, there’s plenty of those, if you count enclave cities (a city entirely surrounded by another city). One of the “suburbs” of Cleveland, for instance, borders only on Cleveland to the east, south, and west, and on Lake Erie to the north. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/29 "2006-04-17T21:19:45Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > In gerneral, there are only four municipalities in Hawaii: Hawaii is its own municipality and island, > Honolulu, which is all of Oahu, > Kauai, which is Kauai and Niihau, > and Maui, which is Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe. > Ewa Beach, Kohala, Kula, etc, may be called towns or cities but they have no independant political power. :smack: add Molokai to Mauai also ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/30 "2006-04-17T22:03:04Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > In gerneral, there are only four municipalities in Hawaii: Hawaii is its own municipality and island, > Honolulu, which is all of Oahu, > Kauai, which is Kauai and Niihau, > and Maui, which is Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe. > Ewa Beach, Kohala, Kula, etc, may be called towns or cities but they have no independant political power. Honolulu is generally considered the area between Halawa Heights (roughly the stadium and north Pearl Harbor to Hawaii Kai. There are other towns outside like Ewa Beach, Kaneohe, Kapolei, which are physically seperate from Honolulu… as in mountains or country get in the way. But those towns, like neighboring Aiea and continguous Pearl City, have no City Hall, Fire Dept, Police Dept, etc. It’s all part of Honolulu. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/31 "2006-04-18T00:57:56Z")
Thanks for all the replies, gang. It’s interesting and food for further speculation and playful looking-up. But with the demise of my faithful dog today, I fear it’ll be a while before I return to pondering this issue. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/32 "2006-04-18T02:16:42Z")
> [@ctr221180](#): > > My guess for the lower 48 states would be Bakersfield, California which is larger than Spokane and is only bordered by two CDPs, Oildale and Rosedale. I thought of Bakersfield some time after I last posted to this thread, but it wasn’t convenient for me to do a look up on the Census Bureau website for it. You beat me to the punch. So at 247,000, it’s the current front runner. As I recall, Bakersfield was also the answer to the trivia question about the largest US city not within 5 miles (or was it 10?) of an Interstate highway. We had a thread about that some time ago, but I’m not going to bother to search for it. Technically, Anchorage was actually the answer to that question, except that the question was explicitly restricted to the contiguous US. Anchorage could also be the answer to this question, although you could consider Anchorage Municipality to be more like a county than a city. The Census Bureau actually lists it as both, when you do a search for it on their website. As far as Hawaii goes, the four municipalities there are generally treated the same as counties by pretty much everyone, including governmental agencies such as the Census Bureau. As I said previously, Hawaii doesn’t have incorporated cities and towns. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/33 "2006-04-18T07:43:00Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Just pointing out that in Massachusetts and some other states, there is NO ‘unincorporated’ land. Every square inch belongs to a municipality. Some of these municipalities are rural ‘towns’ where the town center is a crossroads with a gas station, some are suburbs, and some are urban ‘cities’, but they’re all municipalities of some sort. > Not sure how this would change the OP’s formulation. Similarly in New York State, each county is subdivided into towns and/or cities (except for New York City, which encompasses five counties). Some towns may be partially or fully subdivided into villages, but all areas are under town or city administration at least. As such, the answer to the question posed cannot be Rochester or any other New York municipality. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/34 "2006-04-18T14:58:23Z")
Lubbock and Amarillo, TX are both pretty much on their own, both over 100K population. ---
**Author:** ![PigBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@PigBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigBoy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891/35 "2006-04-18T15:22:31Z")
I don’t see any municipalities bordering Lexington, KY (population 260,000), which appears to be coextensive with Fayette County. It beats out Bakersfield if you go by the census population, but I’d bet that Bakersfield has surpassed it in population by now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-us-city-that-doesnt-border-on-another-municipality/352891.md?page=1)