# U.S. cities and timezones/ state borders. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334 "2014-04-04T12:40:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/41 "2014-04-06T02:11:00Z")
Arizona as a state does not observe daylight savings time, so for part of the year the state is one hour ahead of California. The rest of the year they have the same time as California. But the Navajo nation lands in the NE quadrant of the state DOES observe DST. Just to add a bit of difference to an already mixed situation, the Hopi lands in the middle of the Navajo lands DO NOT observe DST So Arizona has a strange concentric formation of areas that consecutively do not/do/do not observe DST. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/42 "2014-04-06T02:18:16Z")
> [@kurtisokc](#): > > It is fairly common in some states for county lines to run through a city or town. As has already been mentioned, all units of local government (cities, towns, counties, etc.) are state creations, and in some states (at least) cities and counties perform such different functions that it wasn’t deemed necessary to require their boundaries to allign. That does tend to create some confusion, especially if you also factor in school districts (who’s boundaries may have little to do with city or county boundaries.) In Broomfield’s case, it was incorporated wholly within Boulder County in 1961. Over the years, the city annexed land in adjoining counties with the result there were four county court systems, four county tax bases, etc. So to make everything in Broomfield consistent within all parts of the city, creating a new county was deemed to be the most efficient solution. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/43 "2014-04-06T02:31:02Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Just from looking around on Google Earth, [this little community](https://maps.google.com/?ll=41.41113,-86.46409&z=15&t=h) in Indiana straddles the official boundary between the Eastern and Central time zones. But that doesn’t mean that people observe the difference strictly. NW Indiana is aligned with Chicago and it is on Central Time. However, once you get to Marshall County,Indiana (Plymouth being the county seat and largest city) you are in Eastern Time like the rest of the state. Since Indiana adopted daylight savings time, it no longer experiences the three different time zones that it did in the past (Central,Indiana and Eastern) Before Indiana did change to daylights savings, you could drive from South Bend into Michigan and leap ahead one hour. That was across the state line. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/44 "2014-04-06T02:38:15Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Two municipalities in Nevada adhere to Mountain time: Jackpot and West Wendover. Jackpot’s anomaly is “off the books”. Wendover, Nevada allows gambling, but because the town itself looks east to Utah for its business dealings, the US Department of Transportation moved the time zone line so that the Nevada town is in the Mountain Time Zone. Because of the thriving gambling side of the state line, the Utah side is dying, and there have been repeated moves to merge the two towns together and move the Utah side into Nevada, but the state of Utah won’t allow it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/45 "2014-04-06T03:43:24Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > The entire city of Lloydminster is considered to be in both provinces at once, a situation called “condominim”[sup]1[/sup]. “Codominium”? ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/46 "2014-04-06T04:22:09Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Wendover, Nevada allows gambling, but because the town itself looks east to Utah for its business dealings, the US Department of Transportation moved the time zone line so that the Nevada town is in the Mountain Time Zone. Because of the thriving gambling side of the state line, the Utah side is dying, and there have been repeated moves to merge the two towns together and move the Utah side into Nevada, but the state of Utah won’t allow it. I’ve always wondered why it’s there in the first place. It’s not like Jackpot or Stateline where the whole town was founded just to be the first place you can gamble-- the town originally sprung up around the airbase, but I can’t figure out any logical reason why the Air Corps decided to put it right there when they had a whole big desert to choose from. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/47 "2014-04-06T04:38:20Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I don’t know of any town or city that is actually divided by a time zone boundary but there are several within about 5 miles of a time zone boundary. > > Columbus, Georgia population 198000 Phenix City, Alabama is just over the state line from Columbus, Georgia. > [@](#): > > Although Alabama is legally in the Central Time Zone, Phenix City’s proximity to the larger city of Columbus, Georgia causes Phenix City (including its municipal government) and areas within a 10-15 mile radius (such as Smiths Station) to observe Eastern Time on a de facto basis. > **[Phenix City, Alabama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenix_City%2C_Alabama)** > > Phenix City is a city in Lee and Russell counties in the U.S. state of Alabama, and the county seat of Russell County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 38,817. > Phenix City lies immediately west across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, Georgia and observes Eastern Time on a de facto basis (in contrast to the rest of Alabama, which observes Central Time) due to Phenix City's strong economic ties to Columbus. Most of Phenix City is included in the Columbus Metropolitan ... ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/48 "2014-04-06T04:47:04Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > I’ve always wondered why it’s there in the first place. It’s not like Jackpot or Stateline where the whole town was founded just to be the first place you can gamble-- the town originally sprung up around the airbase, but I can’t figure out any logical reason why the Air Corps decided to put it right there when they had a whole big desert to choose from. The Air Base was constructed on a bombing range. It was built in Wendover because the place was on the railroad, and because it was far enough away from any major cities that, should there be some accident, they wouldn’t accidentally bomb the civilian population. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/49 "2014-04-06T05:25:10Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Just from looking around on Google Earth, [this little community](https://maps.google.com/?ll=41.41113,-86.46409&z=15&t=h) in Indiana straddles the official boundary between the Eastern and Central time zones. But that doesn’t mean that people observe the difference strictly. Gosh no - my state of Indiana continues to insist with multiple time zones. Cross a county line and you may have to change your watch. If you need to call some sort of state service it pays to know if there’s a difference in time zone where you are vs. where the service office is located. It’s not quite as bad as it used to be but it’s never the same time across the entire state. Counties near a large urban area will follow that urban area even if it’s in another state, such as Lake and Porter counties following whatever time Chicago is. There’s a train line that goes from Chicago to South Bend, and the schedules have notions as to what time of the year which part of the line is following which time zone. > [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Before Indiana joined the civilized world and accepted Daylight Saving Time the towns of Union City Indiana and Union City Ohio would be out of sync by an hour for half the year. The locals called it “Indiana Time” half of the year and yes they strictly held to it. You still get that effect some places in the state. > [@Colophon](#): > > What is the difference between an incorporated place and an unincorporated place? If I live in the latter, do I miss out on local services? Do I pay less taxes? As it happens, I live in part of unincorporated Lake County, Indiana. Yes, we pay fewer taxes. We also have many fewer services. For example, we have no street lights. We do not have either municipal water or sewer services so my home has its own well and septic system. There is no government monitoring of our well, if we want the water tested for quality that has to be done by us (well, by our landlord). We do not have municipal trash removal. My landlord pays a private company to pick our garbage up once a week. Other people will take it down to the dump themselves, or else try to sneak their garbage into the bins of people who do have garbage pickup, leading to such craziness as having _locks_ on trash bins. It’s not because people are afraid of someone stealing their trash, it’s because they don’t want other people filling up their bins. Several years ago the county DID start putting in storm sewers which has reduced the annual flooding around here. The only police coverage is the local sheriff, the county-level police. This is why I laugh whenever I hear libertarians go on about what a paradise it would be if government withered away to nothing and everything was done by private agreement and business. It’s not paradise. It’s people getting into fistfights over who is dumping whose garbage in who’s dumpster, when they’re not simply dumping it on the roadside. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/50 "2014-04-06T08:43:52Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > “Codominium”? Nope, [condominium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condominium_(international_law)). ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/51 "2014-04-06T08:52:21Z")
Before the mid 19th century many places in the UK had different times. With the advent of the railways, they needed to work on a standard time base so some towns would have had local time and railway time for a while. It wasn’t long before they all switched to railway time. I believe that something similar happened in the US. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/52 "2014-04-06T13:00:50Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Here’s a question that I’ve been curious about. Many (Most? All?) states require you to register your car in their state if you live there. There are also states that require you to register your car if you work in the state (Arizona is one). What happens if you live in one state and work in another and are required to register your car in both? You might want to check into that further- I remember being told that about a different state ( Florida,I think) and it turned out that you had to register your vehicle if you were if you were a resident for a certain number of consecutive days - or if you lived there for any length of time and had kids in school, worked, paid resident tuition at a public college , etc.But you have to live there to be a resident, so it didn’t apply to people commuting into the state daily ( if anyone does that, I know it happens all the time in the Northeast), or people spending a few weeks there on business, and the time requirement exempted snowbirds who spend only the winter there. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/53 "2014-04-06T14:36:16Z")
The vagaries of time zones leads to this puzzle: How can a clock in an Atlantic seaboard state correctly read the same time as a clock in a Pacific state? Western Florida uses CST (just continue the border between Georgia and Alabama south). There is a strip of eastern Oregon that is on mountain time; I assume that it is some local accommodation. So the clock in western Florida is usually one hour ahead of the one in eastern Oregon. However for one hour every year, between 2 and 3 AM central time on the night that DST ends, the clock in western Florida will be on standard time and the one in eastern Oregon will still be on DST and they will be the same. Maybe the most anomalous time zone in the world is that of Chatham Island, a possession of and well southeast of NZ. They are east of the dateline, but a zone that is 45 minutes ahead of NZ, hence UTC + 12:45, at least when they are on standard time, which actually started last night in NZ. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/54 "2014-04-06T17:00:42Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > You might want to check into that further- I remember being told that about a different state ( Florida,I think) and it turned out that you had to register your vehicle if you were if you were a resident for a certain number of consecutive days - or if you lived there for any length of time and had kids in school, worked, paid resident tuition at a public college , etc.But you have to live there to be a resident, so it didn’t apply to people commuting into the state daily ( if anyone does that, I know it happens all the time in the Northeast), or people spending a few weeks there on business, and the time requirement exempted snowbirds who spend only the winter there. [Read the first bullet.](http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/VehicleServices/Registration/registration-compliance-violators) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/55 "2014-04-06T17:17:18Z")
> [@sunstone](#): > > Arizona as a state does not observe daylight savings time, so for part of the year the state is one hour ahead of California. The rest of the year they have the same time as California. But the Navajo > nation lands in the NE quadrant of the state DOES observe DST. Just to add a bit of difference to an already mixed situation, the Hopi lands in the middle of the Navajo lands DO NOT observe DST > > So Arizona has a strange concentric formation of areas that consecutively do not/do/do not observe DST. Weird. The only decent hotel in Tuba city is on Hopi land, and is on a different time zone than the rest of the city (the time changes when you cross the street). All the cell towers are on Navajo land, so one’s phone time must be treated with suspicion. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/56 "2014-04-06T17:18:48Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > The vagaries of time zones leads to this puzzle: How can a clock in an Atlantic seaboard state correctly read the same time as a clock in a Pacific state? > > Western Florida uses CST (just continue the border between Georgia and Alabama south). There is a strip of eastern Oregon that is on mountain time; I assume that it is some local accommodation. So the clock in western Florida is usually one hour ahead of the one in eastern Oregon. However for one hour every year, between 2 and 3 AM central time on the night that DST ends, the clock in western Florida will be on standard time and the one in eastern Oregon will still be on DST and they will be the same. > > Maybe the most anomalous time zone in the world is that of Chatham Island, a possession of and well southeast of NZ. They are east of the dateline, but a zone that is 45 minutes ahead of NZ, hence UTC + 12:45, at least when they are on standard time, which actually started last night in NZ. There are FOUR time zones in the US, so I don’t see how your puzzle could possibly be correct. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/57 "2014-04-06T17:48:32Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > There are FOUR time zones in the US, so I don’t see how your puzzle could possibly be correct. I don’t see what you don’t see. Read the spoiler where it is spelled out in detail. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/58 "2014-04-06T18:35:31Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > [Read the first bullet.](http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/VehicleServices/Registration/registration-compliance-violators) I also read the first paragraph which talks about residents illegally registering vehicles in other states. Thats why I suggested checking into it further - that entire page may be discussing people who live in Arizona at least temporarily rather than commuters. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/59 "2014-04-07T00:28:06Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > **There are FOUR time zones in the US,** so I don’t see how your puzzle could possibly be correct. Incorrect. Alaska and Hawaii provide two additional ones. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334/60 "2014-04-07T03:01:19Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I also read the first paragraph which talks about residents illegally registering vehicles in other states. Thats why I suggested checking into it further - that entire page may be discussing people who live in Arizona at least temporarily rather than commuters. Nope. I got a ticket from MVD for working in Phoenix even though I was still a resident of California. One of our campus security officers was an asshole and reported it the first day of school even though I had moved there less than a week previously despite the statutory definition of a resident being someone who lived in Arizona for 6 months. I was told by MVD that if you work in Arizona you need to register your car in Arizona to use it. I even use the example of someone living in Laughlin, NV commuting to Bullhead City, AZ and according to MVD it doesn’t matter where they live, that’s for Nevada to worry about i.e. not their problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-cities-and-timezones-state-borders/685334.md?page=4)