Thursday, December 20, 2007

Boundaries

I do real estate, so I like maps. Boundaries have some delicious anomalies. For instance, there is the notch of Massachusetts into Connecticut. Rhode Island and Connecticut don't align perfectly. Kentucky has an orphan on its West end. Florida's panhandle got cut off--it originally went all the way to the Mississippi. There is a notch in the Northeastern corner of New Mexico. And we won't even discuss Michigan.

How did this all happen? I know some answers (Michigan) but would welcome others. I would also be curious as to whether others have favorite anomalies. I have focussed on the US (for which there are many more), but I would welcome candidates from anywhere.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Llivia. A small Spanish town entirely surrounded by France. I don't remember the exact story, but supposedly back in the 1600's or so a treaty was signed in which a province or some such was ceded to France, but the Spanish side didn't tell the French that the municipality was legally separate from the province until after the signing. I can't remember the name, but there is also an Italian town in Switzerland.