Very interesting that you consider a perfectly straight line to be jiggy!
I have never understood at all why any of the BoundaryPoint people think
it is odd when political boundaries cut across land/water shorelines in
arbitrary ways. Politically, land and water are no different. MOST
political boundaries in North America, Australia, Africa, and other former
colonies of European powers are just lines drawn on maps independent of
local geographies. The State of Michigan is continuous, only its land
areas are not. But the land of Pennsylvania is not continuous either, it
is divided by the Aleghenney/Ohio river and probably others. Jefferson Co,
Washington, is not at all odd to me, and it is very odd to me that anyone
would consider it odd! If you sit far away and draw political boundaries
along parallels and meridians (which itself is very logical), then it
should not be surprising if they cut across land and water, or small
mountain ranges, willy nilly
David
PS: True enclaves and exclaves, on the other hand, are really odd and
interesting!
On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Brendan Whyte wrote:
> 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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