The boundary is a straight line, and probably made sense in days of yore.
Since the creation of the lake by damming a river, the boundary cuts through
the lake at a weird angle, and leaves two peninsulas in the NE of the lake
belonging to the county to the SW. The only access to these peninsulas is a
long detour through the neighbouring county. There are roads in the
peninsulas, possibly forestry roads, but if not, their location makes for a
long detour for county road maintenance. One road pointing SE snakes back
and forth across the boundary.
The boundary since the filling of the lake is 'irrational', and clearly
inefficient for provision of services by the county to the SW. Services like
road maintenance, law enforcementplanning, and provision of utilities would
be better provided by the county on the E side of the lake, rather than the
west. If there was population all around the lake, argument could be made
for including all of that population in the same ocunty, but as the area is
unpopu,ated, or sparsely at most, the present position of the boundary is
irrational. My suggestion would be for it to follow the middle of the lake
and up an arm, or possibly even the projection of the river course
underneath onto the lake surface. The latter happens along the Neb/SD
border: Lewis and Clark Lake, though the boundary there always followed a
river.
The border between San Juan, Garfield and Kane counties in SE Utah follows
Green River up the middle of Lake Powell. This is more sensible thanleaving
small pieces ot land on the far side out of reach.
Of course it is a case of which comes first, the lake or the boundary, but
one would think it sensible for the state legislature, or even the counties
involved to cede or exchangfe land.
See also Buggs island lake, Va/NC, where the straight line statew boundary
has been rendered irrational by the creation of the lake.
What a place for a crime, eh?
Another favourite is Jefferson Co, Wa, which spans the Olympic peninsula.
The main population is on the E side, around Port Townsend, the county seat.
The west side is cut off by the Olympic National Park in between, meaning a
VERY long drive (60miles+)for county officials, so they have to keep a small
road maintenance crew on the west side. On one road that snakes south from
here through Grays Co and back north into the naional park in Jefferson the
change in road seal (or change to no road seal) as one enters and leaves
each Co in turn is palpable.
The county officials in Port townsend got noticably twitchy when I wlaked in
and asked them what police facilities were on the west side,, howc many men
and what equipment... :-)
Brendan, getting rejiggy with it!
>From: David Mark <dmark@...>
>Reply-To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] hypothetical situation
>Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 08:53:46 -0500 (EST)
>
>On http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=17&n=3672657&e=293685, I cannot see
>what is being refered to as a "fragment" or a "jig"-- the only line that
>looks like a county boundary to me, the alternating long and short dashes,
>apepars very well behaved... What am I missing?
>David
>
>On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Brendan Whyte wrote:
>
> > For Baldwin/Hancock, Ga fragment, go to:
> >
> > http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=17&n=3672657&e=293685
> >
> > You'd think someone would rejig the boundary, eh?
> >
> > Brendan
> >
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