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Guy steps out of his farmhouse and sees a bunch of cyclers making crop circles, which dashes everybody's hopes that there visitations from aliens. Something like that?
Nothing like that. That which was being hoped for was something which was quite possible and required no subscription to any outlandish ideas involving aliens or the spirit world. Think of it as "We think this might exist, it is just a matter of finding it." The incident I reference was the very moment when it was established beyond any possibility of doubt, that the thing did not exist.
This isn't a trick question of any sort, the people involved are not obscure. If you do not figure it out, when I tell you, it will be one of those "Of course!" head slapping moments for you.
As a hint....four years after making the discovery, the person who made it was dead by suicide.
Yes...the fabled Northwest Passage. As exploration of the continent expanded, the last hope for a NW passage came down to the last unexplored place. The final hope was that topping the mountain from which the Missouri flowed East, would reveal the valley of the Oregon River, meaning that only a short portage was needed to travel across the nation by water. Of course what Lewis saw wasn't the Oregon River Valley, it was endless miles of more mountains stretching out as far as the horizon permitted.
For the past half century, county maps of the US states have remained virtually unchanged. Only four new counties have been created in the past 50 years. What are they? (Not counting those that changed their name or status, but kept original boundaries, such as Miami-Dade or Virginia Beach)
I guess that was just too trivial, and also too hard to look up. The answers, in case anybody is wondering, is:
Menominee, Wisconsin (created from Shawano)
LaPaz, Arizona (created from Yuma)
Cibola, New Mexico (created from McKinley)
Broomfield, Colorado, created along the city limits of a city that was partly in four counties.
I guess that was just too trivial, and also too hard to look up. The answers, in case anybody is wondering, is:
Menominee, Wisconsin (created from Shawano)
LaPaz, Arizona (created from Yuma)
Cibola, New Mexico (created from McKinley)
Broomfield, Colorado, created along the city limits of a city that was partly in four counties.
Jtur, haven't been able to get on the site as much lately, wish I had been on to try this one. Great question, not trivial at all. Guess there haven't been as many on the site over the holidays. But then this question is more in line with our Geography thread than this History thread.
Broomfield is the only one I knew about, remember reading about it in USA Today. Would have had to research the others.
Actually, I thought this did qualify as history, more so than geography. The last county to be disorganized and cease to exist was Armstrong County SD, whose 52 residents were awarded to neighboring Dewey county in 1952. According to the 1952 Rand McNally Road Atlas, there wasn't even a driveable road in the county at the time.
I've been in what was Armstrong County, the road into the territory is not shown on MapQuest, but it's there. I saw a couple of houses that looked like they might have been there in 1952. It's all in the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.
Georgia had two counties dissolve during the depression, Campbell and Milton both merged with Fulton (Atlanta). This has led to the odd shape of the present day Fulton County.
There has been talk of restoring Milton County as its former area of far north Fulton is largely upper class white and don't like the high taxes to support the southern end which is not as properous and largely minority. However, the GA constitution would have to be amended as it limits the state to the current number of 159 counties.
There was some talk about trying to encourage some of the poorer more sparsely populated counties in the southern part of the state to merge which would make room for a Milton County to be reestablished. However the need for this has been diminished somewhat when Republicans took over the state legislature earlier this decade and relaxed the rules for new cities to incorporate. Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Milton (city of not county, but named for the former county) have been allowed to incorporate and now all of Fulton County north of Atlanta city limits is now part of an incorporated city.
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