User:Schmiteye/Unusual

RESEARCHING - PLEASE DO NOT EDIT

Future article on Unusual Landforms in the United States or "Political borders of the United States"

The features listed her are fairly prominent UNUSUAL features that define the boundaries of states in unusual ways. The features listed should have some sort of article that highlights the unusual feature.

UPDATE - well, this might also spawn an article on boundaries.....

Probably should have a separate articles east and west of the Mississippi River.

Unusal USA landforms (future article)

 * Northwest Angle - enclave

-- -- Stolen from:List of enclaves and exclaves ---
 * At least seven places in the United States cannot be reached by land except through Canada:
 * Alaska;
 * Point Roberts in northwestern Washington;
 * the Northwest Angle in Minnesota, a peninsula bordering Lake of the Woods;
 * Elm Point, a small piece nearby where the coastline of the Lake of the Woods dips slightly south over the border;
 * a similar unnamed sliver of land just west of Elm Point. (Both of these are in western Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota, near the northeast corner of Roseau County, Minnesota, just south of the southeast corner of Manitoba);

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 * In the United States of America:
 * In Alaska, a portion of the Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon Census Area of the Unorganized Borough is separated by Haines Borough. The Unorganized Borough is separated into multiple sections by Haines and Yakutat Boroughs.
 * Kentucky — The westernmost part of Fulton County is a piece of land known as the Kentucky Bend, located inside a loop of the Mississippi River, detached from its mother state. The only road in the area goes south into Tennessee. This exclave exists because the Mississippi, which forms the boundary between Missouri (right bank) and Kentucky/Tennessee (left bank), crosses latitude 36°30', which defines part of the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, three times.
 * In Louisiana, a portion of St. Martin Parish is separated by Iberia Parish. A portion of West Feliciana Parish is separated by Concordia Parish.  A portion of Madison Parish is separated by Warren County, Mississippi.
 * In Massachusetts, Norfolk County has two exclaves: Brookline between Middlesex and Suffolk counties, and Cohasset on the coast of Plymouth County.
 * In New Mexico, Sandoval County has an exclave. During World War II, Los Alamos County was created out of parts of Sandoval and Santa Fe Counties, for the convenience of the Manhattan Project.  That portion of Sandoval County which is within the San Ildefonso Indian Reservation, about 3 km², became an exclave bounded by Los Alamos County on the southwest, Santa Fe County on the east and Rio Arriba County on the north.
 * In Pennsylvania, numerous municipalities in the southeastern part of Delaware County have exclaves. For example, Springfield Township has an exclave separated from the main body of the township by the village of Swarthmore; Darby Township and Darby Boro (which are distinct municipalities from each other) each consist of two separate non-contiguous areas; and part of Upper Darby is separated from the main body of the township by Aldan and Lansdowne.
 * In the United States of America:
 * In Colorado, Arapahoe County has two exclaves within the City and County of Denver, one of which is the city of Glendale.
 * District of Columbia — Reagan National Airport was built on reclaimed land in the Potomac River. The District's boundary with Virginia runs to the high-water mark on the south side of the river.  Therefore, until 1945, the site was considered to be an exclave of the District.  Since then, the airport is officially deemed to be part of Arlington County, Virginia but it is under exclusive federal jurisdiction and is administered as if it was still part of the District.
 * New Hampshire — The town of Killington, Vermont, voted on March 2, 2004 at a Town Meeting to secede from that state and join New Hampshire, whose border is 25 miles (40 km) away. This vote was repeated in the March 2005 town meeting, after a group of residents filed a new ballot warrant on the issue. In June 2005, the New Hampshire Legislature passed a bill which would establish a commission to negotiate the terms of the town's secession if and when Vermont opts to establish a commission of its own. However the State of Vermont is unlikely to allow Killington to secede.  Also, the secession could not happen unless the two states actually came to a mutually acceptable agreement.  A change in the two states' boundaries would also require the consent of the federal government.  As things stand as of 2006, New Hampshire is happy to let Killington remain part of Vermont, and Vermont wants to hold on to Killington.
 * New York — The historic extent of Ellis Island belongs to Manhattan (New York County), but the surrounding portion created by infill belongs to Hudson County, New Jersey . Liberty Island (site of the Statue of Liberty) also lies on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
 * In Pennsylvania, numerous municipalities in the southeastern part of Delaware County have enclaves or exclaves.

Primary formation of borders
Organized incorporated territories of the United States

Other notable locations/features

 * Four Corners
 * Alaska Panhandle
 * Panhandles
 * Alaska Panhandle
 * Connecticut Panhandle
 * Florida Panhandle
 * Idaho Panhandle
 * Maryland Panhandle
 * Nebraska Panhandle
 * North Carolina Panhandle
 * Oklahoma Panhandle See also
 * Neutral Strip (Oklahoma)
 * Cherokee Outlet
 * Texas Panhandle

Parallels and meridians
The parallel 41° north forms the northern boundary of the State of Colorado with Nebraska and Wyoming and the southern boundary of the State of Wyoming with Colorado and Utah.

The 41st parallel was also one of the principal baselines used for surveying a portion of lands in Ohio. This marked the southern boundary of the Connecticut Western Reserve and the Firelands using the western boundary with Pennsylvania as the principal meridian. It also served as the baseline for a later survey of Ohio land north of the Greenville Treaty line up to the Fulton line which was the original boundary between Michigan and Ohio under the Northwest Ordinance (see the Toledo Strip). The later survey used the boundary with Indiana as the meridian.

Retrieved from:

The 42nd parallel north forms most of the New York - Pennsylvania Border, although due to imperfect surveying in 1785-1786, this boundary wanders around on both sides of the true parallel.

The Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 established the parallel 42° north as the border between the Viceroyality of New Spain of the Kingdom of Spain and the western territory of the United States of America from the meridian of the headwaters of the Arkansas River west to the Pacific Ocean. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 ceded northern Mexico to the United States. As a result, the U.S. states of Oregon and Idaho have the parallel 42° north as their southern border and the U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah have the parallel 42° north as their northern border.

The parallel 42° north passes through the southern end of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. Part of the water boundary between the United States and Canada passes south of the 42nd parallel, and the southern tip of the Canadian province of Ontario just barely goes south of it - this is located at Point Pelee and Pelee Island.

The 37th parallel north forms the southern boundary of the State of Kansas, the State of Colorado, and the State of Utah and the northern boundary of the State of Oklahoma, the State of New Mexico, and the State of Arizona. The intersection of the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah at the Four Corners is the only place in the United States where four states touch.

The parallel 37° north formed the southern boundary of the historic and extralegal Territory of Jefferson.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/37th_parallel_north"

-- In the United States, the 102nd meridian west of Greenwich passes through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The meridian 102° west of Greenwich formed the eastern border of the historic and extralegal Territory of Jefferson. The eastern border of the Colorado with Nebraska and Kansas lies on the 25th meridian west from Washington, which lies a couple miles west of the 102nd meridian west of Greenwich. 25th meridian west from Washington

The Adams-Onís Treaty settled the dispute by drawing clear borders, roughly granting Florida and Louisiana to the U.S. while giving to Spain everything west of Louisiana from Texas to California. The precise boundary was to be the Sabine River north from the Gulf of Mexico to the 32nd parallel north, then due north to the Red River, west along the Red River to the 100th meridian west, due north to the Arkansas, west to its headwaters, north to the 42nd parallel north, and finally west along the parallel to the Pacific Ocean.

USA and Mexico border

 * United States and Mexican Boundary Survey

Large area border definitions
Explicit - California, Nevada, Utah (partial) Implicit - Oregon, Idaho,
 * Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo