Archive for the ‘America’ Category
Delaware State High Point: Ebright Azimuth
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010Canadian rockers Moxy Früvous would have you believe that the US state with the lowest highest point is in Delaware. (Moxy Früvous – The Lowest Highest Point from some shady website) In the beginning of the song, they say that they would expect it to be Florida or Louisiana, and they would have been correct had they picked Florida, but they incorrectly went with Delaware. Maybe because of a question in Trivial Pursuit[3]?
In any case, they’re Canadian, so we can give them a break. How many people in the US can even name all of the Canadian Provinces and Territories? I tried to do it once in alphabetical order, and found that there are a lot of them that start with N: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, and Nunavut. 38.4% of the Provinces and Territories in Canada start with an N! I found this interesting enough that I made a pie chart about it.
The Canadian Province with lowest highest point is Prince Edward Island, at 459-466 feet (Sources Vary) [2][4]. This is still higher (but not much higher) than Delaware’s highest point [1].
Anyway, I have been interested in state highpointing for a little bit, and figured Delaware would be an easy one to knock off my list.
After a trip to White Clay Creek State Park to go biking and find the Arc Corner Monument (unsuccessfully, after my bicycle got a flat tire 8 miles from where we parked), we decided to take a detour on our way home to find the Delaware State High Point.
I had done research on it in the past, and had come across this site. It has a cool map showing that there is land near the official high point is actually slightly higher. The Delaware State High Point Wikipedia Entry claims this land was added later for drainage reasons, but it isn’t a natural high point, and therefore doesn’t count. It was easy to find, and near route 202 in Wilmington, so it was close enough to being on our way.
We arrived at the high point around 7:30pm on Halloween, and we were greeted by costumed Trick-or-Treaters. We took a drive into the trailer park and took a photo of a field that is near the areas depicted to be above the surveyed high point (Those specific areas are all private lawns, so we didn’t want to be too intrusive). We also drove over to the official marker sign and took a photograph. It was quite dark, and it required me to strategically position my car’s headlights on a nearby street to illuminate the sign well enough for the photograph.
 The actual highest point is in this photo.. somewhere |
|
Cherry County, Nebraska
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
US Counties Colored by Area
Looking at a map of counties and county equivalents in the United States, I noticed a few things about county size that stand out to me.
- The counties near the Mississippi and Ohio rivers seem to be extremely small.
- Counties in and west of the Rockies are pretty big.
- Three areas east of the Rockies seem to have pretty counties too big too.
- Three are in northern Maine.
- Aroostook County
- Somerset County
- Piscataquis County
- One is in northern Minnesota
- St. Louis County
- One is in Nebraska
- Cherry County
- Three are in northern Maine.
The counties in northern Maine are near the Canadian border and are mostly wilderness, so that most likely explains their size. Aroostook County has an interesting history involving the Aroostook war, and is known locally as “The County”. (Check out the Wikipedia entry)
St. Louis County, Minnesota is an interesting place as well, it contains a national forest (which contains its own national wilderness area), and a national park. It also includes the Laurentian Divide tri-point, where water can flow to the Gulf of Mexico, the Saint Lawrence River, or the Arctic Ocean.
Counties of Nebraska
Cherry County
Cherry County stood out to me because it is right in the center of the map and is far larger than any county in Nebraska. Cherry County is 15,564 square kilometers in size, where the next largest county, Custer County is 6,672 square kilometers. This means more than two Custer Counties would fit into Cherry County. For more comparison, the state of Connecticut is only 14,356 square kilometers.
I couldn’t find a good reason for its size, the county was created from unorganized territory and at the time it was created, most of the present-day counties surrounding it were also unorganized. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Nebraska, http://www.casde.unl.edu/history/counties/cherry/valentine/index.php)
In 1911 there was a plan to break up Cherry County into 5 distinct counties. This would make administering the county a little easier, and give many residents easier access to their county seat. The plan was voted against, and the county still remains the largest in Nebraska.
Interesting Points
Water Falls
The Snake River Falls are said to be the largest in Nebraska. I was unable to find photos of the waterfalls that weren’t copyrighted, but you can search with google. There is also a water fall called the Schlegel Creek Falls within the County. I found a book with some more information here.
Time Zone
Another oddity with Cherry County is that it falls in both the Central and the Mountain Time zone. This created more of a reason as to why the county would like to be split into two, or five parts!
I was able to find a website with time zone maps. I combined the county map and time zone map to create the following map. The county boundary is in blue, and the time zone line is in red.
I’m sure there’s a lot more cool stuff going on in Cherry County, Nebraska. Maybe one day I’ll travel there, or get the urge to write more about it. Until then, Enjoy!
Pennsylvania’s Highest Point: Mount Davis
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
The observation tower at Pennsylvania's highest point, Mount Davis.
The Mount Davis high point is located on a mountain ridge called Negro Mountain. It is about 4.37 miles from the Pennsylvania / Maryland border, and just over 16.5 miles from the Pennsylvania / Maryland / West Virginia tripoint. My GPS showed the location to be 39.785841°N, 79.176596°W, with an elevation of 3,362 ft. Which is much more accurate of an elevation than I normally expect from my GPS. According to the Wikipedia article on the point, the coordinates are 39.786111°N, 79.175833°W.
My attempt at an artistic photo of a windmill at the Casselman Wind Power Project
We saw a few interesting sites on our way to the High Point. The first of which was the Casselman Wind Power Project. We decided to get out and explore the wind mill area. I had never been that close to a wind farm before. It is a really amazing source of power, and it appears to be located in a fairly suitable location, as most of the turbines were turning.
The road sign marking the state's highest point.
Ken climbing on Baughman Rocks
What I assume is the Highest Treetop in Pennsylvania
Topographic map of the area around Mount David
Sideling Hill Gap Road Cut
Appalachian Brewing Company
No trip is complete without a stop at a local brew pub. We stopped at the Appalachian Brewing Company just outside of Camp Hill, PA for some excellent beer, rosemary bread sticks, salad, and peanut butter pie! The waitress explained to us that they are not located in the borough of Camp Hill because the borough is a dry town. That is the first I had ever hear of a Pennsylvania municipality being dry!
I got to learn a lot about Pennsylvania on this trip, and am looking forward to highpointing in NJ and DE in the near future. I also came across an excellent webpage with highpoints for all of Pennsylvania’s 68 counties. I hope to get to a few of these this summer!
USA Today: GPS devices aren’t always right!
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
It may seem obvious that the maps stored on GPS devices is not always correct. Not only is the data collection itself prone to error, but they are a static snapshot. Maps change overtime, new roads are built, natural disasters take out roads, and civil projects can lead many roads and towns to be at the bottom of a lake.
There was an episode of the office where one of the characters drives his car into a lake, because his GPS told him so, a clip can be found here.
The linked article doesn’t take into account error with the GPS itself. GPS error is very common, especially in areas where the signal can reflect or be distorted. A popular example of this can happen in an Urban Canyon. I have seen a GPS estimate its location as being on a major highway, when a vehicle was traveling on a frontage road, as well as some very peculiar effects biking through New York City.
While not as readable as a USA Today article, Wikipedia has a very good article up on errors in GPS reception.
Caution: GPS devices aren’t always right. (via USA Today)
Shuttle Launch to Be Visible from U.S. East Coast (March 11, 2009)
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
(T = 9:20 EDT, March 11, 2009)
If it’s not too cloudy tonight, we should be able to see the Shuttle Launch!
Weather permitting, people within about a 500-mile (800-kilometer) radius of the central Florida coast will be able to see the flare from the shuttle’s solid-fuel rocket launchers two seconds after launch for about two minutes.
From two to eight minutes after launch, Discovery’s main engines will make the shuttle seem to burn like a flickering, yellow-orange star.
People with binoculars may even be able to make out the shuttle’s V-shaped tail.
Shuttle Launch to Be Visible to Most of U.S. East Coast. (via National Geographic)
