Category Archives: Geography

May 08

Complete chronology of Iowa counties

Posted on Tuesday, May 8, 2012, at 1:58 PM by Jeff

Iowa at statehood, 1846 (Flickr) It seems like most of Iowa’s county histories are ever only organized by individual county. This provides good detail for each separately, but hurts when you are trying to think of the “big picture” of … Continue reading →

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May 06

That would have been awkward

Posted on Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 3:14 PM by Jeff

Davis County Iowa, along the Missouri border, was named in 1843 for Garret Davis, a U.S. representative from Kentucky. But if the luck of the draw had gone another way, it would have created historical confusion for generations to come. … Continue reading →

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Apr 10

945* (Update: Still 946)

Posted on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, at 8:20 PM by Jeff

Clip from the first state highway map (1919) When the Iowa highway system was created in 1920, Mount Sterling was important enough that it (or the Missouri border just south) was the south end of IA 11. That only lasted … Continue reading →

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Apr 02

Early history of each Iowa county

Posted on Monday, April 2, 2012, at 10:09 AM by Jeff

I’ve been looking for county information for a new project (great, but shouldn’t you be working on your old ones? -Ed.) and found that the Iowa Association of Counties digitized a book with a few paragraphs and important dates in … Continue reading →

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Mar 31

A dose of thoroughly useless data

Posted on Saturday, March 31, 2012, at 12:41 PM by Jeff

The east-west part of Chicago’s Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway, aka “the Ike” or I-290, which turns into Congress Parkway in downtown, is about one mile north of the Monona/Harrison-to-Linn/Johnson county line. (About 41°51’N.) In fact, if you add five to … Continue reading →

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Jan 22

Les “counties” du Canada

Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2012, at 9:25 PM by Jeff

The mob-rule.com website has been a county-collecting hub for years. Here’s my map. I’ve divided the past 14 years into two-year chunks, but won’t be switching this time for two reasons: I’m running out of colors, and in 2011 I … Continue reading →

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Jan 11

Sullivan’s corner

Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, at 11:58 AM by Jeff

South side of Section 25, Jackson Township, Taylor County. From 1820 to 1837, this was the northwest corner of the state of Missouri. The survey east of this point to the Mississippi River left something to be desired. The linked … Continue reading →

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Dec 07

Congressional district tables updated

Posted on Wednesday, December 7, 2011, at 10:23 AM by Jeff

I updated the Iowa congressional history maps online soon after they were approved, but had to take some time tweaking the lists. But now, the color-coded county-by-county chart of Iowa’s districts has been updated for the 2010s. The 5th District … Continue reading →

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Oct 17

The Bootheel and the Platte Purchase

Posted on Monday, October 17, 2011, at 12:31 AM by Jeff

It’s 548 miles from Missouri’s northwesternmost county seat, Rock Port, to its southeasternmost, Caruthersville. But other than their license plates, they have little in common. Corn is in one corner, cotton in the other. One technically belongs to the Omaha … Continue reading →

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Oct 04

Distances from Missouri to Big 12, SEC stadiums

Posted on Tuesday, October 4, 2011, at 9:21 PM by Jeff

(May 2009) Missouri and Florida: A thousand miles away literally and metaphorically. For reference. Calculated with Google Maps, Faurot Field to the various stadiums. Bold is Big 12, underline is Big Eight, italics are neutral sites. Arrowhead Stadium 120, Edward … Continue reading →

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