16 Oddities of U.S. Geography 

Hey everyone. I wanted to say thank you for all of the comments on this video. There's been a lot of activity on this channel recently and I've been struggling to keep up with the comments. If you've commented or asked me a question and I haven't gotten back to you, I am trying to keep up but I may not be able to get to them all. But I did want to address one particular topic that represents at least a couple hundred of the comments here. In the video I stated that the only four cities in the country where the city and county are the exact same thing are San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, and Broomfield, CO. Many commented on how there are numerous places in the US that have a consolidated city-county government (the most mentioned ones are Jacksonville, Nashville, Lexington KY, Augusta, Indianapolis, Kansas City KS and Honolulu). These were created to have increased efficiency in government services including law enforcement, schools, trash pickup, utilities, etc. The situation in those cities is a little different than the four I mentioned. For example, Jacksonville-Duval County, FL does not include the entirety of Duval County. A few beach communities (Jax Beach, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach) opted out of the agreement, so there are portions of the county that are not under the Jax-Duval consolidation. Kansas City KS, Augusta, and Indianapolis also have opt-outs. For Nashville, individual towns have some autonomy for things such as sign ordinances and noise ordinances. Alaska has some interesting outliers where vast areas of wilderness are often under the jurisdiction of the city-borough consolidation. Nantucket, MA is also unique in that the town has a population of 7,400 and the county 10,100, although they are one jurisdiction and MA calculates census places a little different than the rest of the US. Honolulu is different in that a person can be nowhere near the city (like say the North Shore) but still be in "Honolulu". It also includes several outlier islands that are nowhere near Oahu. The situation in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, and Broomfield is different in that the literal urban built up area of the city limits is the exact same as the county. There is no distinction or consolidation of services. A neighborhood cannot opt out. There are no areas that are not 100% built up city that exist within the county. In the city-county consolidations there are many rural areas that are part of the jurisdiction but clearly not part of the city for anything other than efficiency of services. It's a fairly thin line but if you are familiar with SF, Philly, or Denver you know the distinction. The most similar ones would be the Cities of St. Louis, Baltimore, and Carson City NV. These three are independent cities but none of those three is in a county at all. Arlington, VA is different in that it is a county only and not a city. And finally I did not mention in the video but just as strange is the fact that New York City is divided into five counties, with each borough being its own county, making it the only city where the city government is of higher order than the county. Ok so that's a ridiculously long post but it just goes to show how US geography can be weird sometimes. Thanks again for all of your comments.

The farther north you go in Florida, the deeper down south you get.

This guy's straight to the point, accurate, no filler content at all, and has genuinely interesting videos. He's like the anti-youtuber.

My favorite US geographical oddity is that Alaska has not only the northern and westernmost points in the US, but technically also the easternmost. Semisopochnoi, one of the Aleutian Islands, lies about ten miles beyond the 180th meridian, making it the easternmost US point in the eastern hemisphere. The westernmost point is the Aleutian island of Amatignak, which is only about 71 miles from Semisopochnoi in opposite hemispheres.

I love how this guy just powers through his presentation , without a ton of distracting movie clips or sound effects. Interesting stuff, without wasting time. Thanks GeoKing!

My favorite US geographic oddity is the fact that Virginia extends further west than West Virginia.

I don't know what I was expecting when I clicked on this video, but that was pretty quirky

Your section on cities and counties reminded me that New York City has five counties inside of its city limits. The five counties correspond to the five ""boroughs" of NYC, but the boroughs and the counties have different names, with one exception. Here are the five boroughs followed by their county name: Manhattan/New York County; The Bronx/Bronx County; Brooklyn/Kings County; Staten Island/Richmond County; and Queens/Queens County.

As a structural engineer I’m pleased you’re telling people about seismic risks outside the West Coast. Great video,as always, thanks

I really like your low-hype presentation. It is very refreshing compared to rankings etc.

There is an area of SE Oregon that is in the Mountain Time Zone and the western part of the Florida panhandle is in the Central Time Zone, thus parts of Oregon and Florida are only one hour apart!

Another interesting fact is how the earthquake mentioned in Missouri rerouted the Mississippi River causing fulton county Kentucky to become landlocked by Tennessee and Missouri. Also it’s always been mind blowing to me that the entire mainland United Kingdom is north of the entire contiguous United States

Lexington and Louisville, KY both are cities that annexed the entire county for what is called County-Urban I believe. The first city I heard of doing this was Jacksonville, Florida and is one of the reasons it had such a large land area for a city.

“And now, the quirks and features of U.S. Geography.” - Doug Demuro

FINALLY someone calls out West St. Paul and its crimes.

It’s amazing flying out of Vegas and you can literally see where one person’s backyard ends and 100s of miles of vast empty desert begins

I find all of these interesting. I'm glad I stumbled upon these. Thanks, Kyle, for putting something like this together.

My favorite fun fact is that Portland, OR is further north than Toronto. Which also means that Seattle and Vancouver are also further north. All three PNW cities are known for rain and moderate weather, while toronto is known for snow while being further south.

I was always surprised how far west Florida extends. Pensacola, Florida is further west than Washington Island, Wisconsin.

I grew up in the Kansas City area. Roads on the Kansas side follow a true N-S grid, while on the Missouri side, North is slightly off. It's easiest to spot if you look at State Line Road that divides the two states for much of the KC metro area. Missouri land was surveyed using the fifth principal meridian (1815), while Kansas was surveyed using the sixth meridian (1855).

This is my first time enjoying your videos. Travel and geography are favorite topics of mine. I’m sure you have this already, but one of my favorite trivia questions is, “From what state can you go south into all 6 adjoining states?” The answer is Arkansas! Now that’s a quirk!

Fun fact: North Carolina is the only state with EXACTLY 100 counties.

The three most important capitals in Egyptian history, Memphis, Alexandria, and Cairo, all on the Nile River, have American namesake cities on the Mississippi River: Memphis, Tennessee; Alexandria, Louisiana; and Cairo, Illinois.

this was super interesting! and i can’t say how refreshing it is to see/hear a really person sharing the information

Point Pelee is located in southwestern Ontario, Canada. This national park lies on the 42nd Parallel, making it the same latitude as northern California.

My favorite weird quirk is "The fastest way from Detroit to Buffalo is through London."

El Paso, TX is closer to San Diego, CA (724 miles) than it is to Houston, TX (773 mi)!

This was great.!!! Thanks for putting this out. I wish it was longer. Definitely subscribed

Very interesting, thank you! I had an assignment in geography class in junior high many years ago to figure out how many states in the US would fit in Texas. I wish I could remember the results as that was more than 45 years ago. The other interesting quirk here in Kansas was in the 80’s when you were heading North on US 69, West on K-96 and East on on US 160. Tell me, how is it possible to go three direction at the same time? I used to have a picture of the highway signs all lined down the same pole. Another fun one we found was in Pittsburg, Kansas where on one side of the street you were at Northwest Street E AND West Southeast St N then on the opposite corner of the same intersection it was the reverse. A little confusing. I have traveled all across the United States and in my travels come across some mighty strange stuff that is really hard to believe. In St Joseph Missouri you have to drive into Kansas (Elwood) to get to Rosecrans Airport across the Missouri River from St Joseph and still in Missouri. The river flood caused that little phenomenon in 1951 when the Missouri River flooded and cut a new path which excluded the small area around Rosecrans. Omaha’s Eppily Airfield is the same way causing you to have to go into Iowa on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River to cross back into Nebraska. Strange but very true. 😊

There are 6 state capitals west of LA: Juneau, Honolulu, Olympia, Salem, Sacramento, and Carson City.

When daylight savings time ends in the Central timezone and 2am CDT becomes 1am CST, for 1 hour it is the same time in western Florida and eastern Oregon.

This was a fun video. I'm checking to see if you've done others like it. Great job 👍 .

I'm addicted to your site!!

One of my favorite quirks comes straight from your neck of the woods. If you are driving eastbound on interstate 24 in Tennessee, towards Chattanooga; you will reach the state of Georgia before you reach Chattanooga. Being a trucker, I notice so many little oddities. Great video, loved it!

South Detroit only exists in Journey's song "Don't Stop Believing".

And I love your channel! The facts, the subject matter…very interesting and engaging. Thank you!

I love stuff like this! Thank you so much for sharing your research!

Wow, bless the RU-vid algorithm for bringing me this video today. I loved how straight to the point and no nonsense you are. This was both entertaining and informative.

I love #2. I live in the Detroit suburbs and when I was in the US Marines, I would tell people that I lived just north of Canada. Everyone assumed that meant that I was from Alaska.

I really appreciate your content, and this video especially due to the little tidbits of strange yet interesting information about this great US of A. You lift my spirit!

Thank you for some of the most interesting content on RU-vid. Where I live, in San Juan County, WA, we only have a single incorporated city in the entire county, Friday Harbor.

The interior of the Nashville Airport (BNA) has its own zip code but as soon as you step outside of the terminal, you're in a different zip code

There's a small portion of Alaska that crosses the international date line, making it further east than maine, so its the furthest north, east, and west state in the US

Dude your account is the best. You get straight to the point at waste no time, and your insanely entertaining.

Hello from Chattanooga! Cool to see a local do such an amazing video.

My favorite quirk is that the most eastern state of the U.S. is...Alaska...the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian...where east begins...this makes Alaska the most northern, western, and eastern state...With Hawaii as the most southern...

"Ain't this place just a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!"

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

When he mentioned Reno being west of LA, I figured he'd give similar comparisons on the east coast. Because Florida is on the east coast, everyone assumes it's pretty far east, so you'd stay near the east coast if you just travel due north. And if you follow the highways that go along the coast, they're right. I-95 will take you straight up the coast from Miami to Maine. But that's because it travels north-northeast from southern Florida, not straight north. If you look at a map, most of the Florida peninsula is actually the same longitude as Ohio. Miami on the east coast of Florida is actually just slightly further west than Pittsburgh, in western PA.

Having lived in Alaska, I kept hoping to hear of some of the 49th state's peculiarities. Hyder Alaska is basically a suburb of Stewart, BC, with most of its services provided from Canada. Juneau has a whole set of glaciers within its boundaries.

Alaska is the most northerly, easterly and westerly state in the US. (The Aleutian Islands cross 180 degrees longitude)

They are all pretty interesting. Thanks for the video! Went through North, SC last week, on the way to Hampton.

Thanks for the information! That was some neat stuff!

This man correctly pronounced all the metro Atlanta counties - bravo, sir!

I lived near Knoxville, Tennessee for years. I now live in northern Nevada. The entire population of northern, central, and eastern Nevada (every man, woman, child, and baby) can fit into Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.

When I lived in NJ over 3 decades ago, and it probably is still the case today, the Interstate 195 from Trenton to the Jersey Shore was considered the dividing line between North and South Jersey. I have travelled through the entire state and have had roommates in college from South Jersey, and it is culturally and topographically different than North Jersey. There are parts in South Jersey that remind me of inland Mississippi (I.e, the Pine Barrens) and back in the 80s (not sure if that is the case today) their accent was more like a southern accent. On the other hand, North Jersey is completely different near NYC in comparison to the more western suburbs (I. e., Morris, Somerset, Eastern Hunterdon County) Further out, which would be Warren and Sussex Counties could actually pass for areas like the hilly parts of northern CT or western Mass. There were parts of Middlesex County and southern Somerset County that could have passed for farmland in the Midwest, but I am not sure if that is the case anymore, because I am almost certain that those types of areas have seen their fair share of development, due to their proximity to both NYC and Philadelphia. Used to bike 10 miles outside of New Brunswick down route 27, and there were areas that looked like Iowa, which I have lived near and have been all over that state. On the other hand I have been to areas in Warren County and very rural Sussex County and felt no different than if I were in areas in both West Virginia and Virginia. Not sure if I am correct, but I noticed years ago that in the states of PA, OH, IN, IL, it was completely different near the I-70 versus I-80, where the former had more characteristics of the south, and it was especially evident in the accents, whereas in the latter, the culture and the accents were more like of those you would find around Cleveland or Chicago.

Loved your video!

At 9:29 ...The earthquake in Missouri was so powerful, it made the Mississippi River flow in reverse for a short while...

Another weird quirk: The city of El Paso, Texas is actually closer to the city of Los Angeles, California than it is to Houston, Texas.

Love your passion on this topic.

Great video, love the way you present the content, straight to the point

I grew up in a city in Virginia. For the longest time I just assumed cities were completely separate from the counties they reside in and they had their own municipal laws, their own school system, their own public works department, etc. It wasn't until I found an online article about "independent cities" that specifically stated Virginia was an outlier that I realized my definition of a city was only valid in my home state.

This video put a smile on my face, I can tell how much you enjoy geography and sharing it with people :)

This is interesting, thank you! On your "places in the U.S. you need to go through Canada to get to" list, you could probably add Estcourt Station, Maine to that list with a little bit of an asterisk. The only way to get there from anywhere else in Maine is by some janky dirt logging roads that are technically not supposed to be open to the public. Meanwhile, there are paved main roads in Pohenagamook, Quebec that will take you across the border to Estcourt Station.

4 minutes in and these are some quirky oddities. Thanks for sharing these.

I love how happy he looks talking about geography

Hey Geography King...did you know there is a creek in the US that flows to both the Atlantic AND Pacific Oceans? It is called Two Ocean Creek & it is located in the Teton Wilderness of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. Thanks to Two Ocean Creek you can travel from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean without touching dry land -- it is a continuous stream that cuts the North American continent in half! Two Ocean Creek splits on the continental divide, which then creates both Atlantic & Pacific Creeks. The same is also true for Isa Lake, which is located inside Yellowstone National Park (a highway is right beside it so it is easy to get to). Isa Lake is directly on the continental divide & it has two outlets that flow in opposite directions -- & the strange thing is the outlet that flows to the west eventually makes it to the Gulf of Mexico while the outlet that flows to the east eventually flows to the Pacific Ocean!

I have been on that stretch of I-81 / I-77 several times in the recent past. Thanks for a great video!

Good job !! I enjoyed your video!

8:35 -- We have something similar in the San Francisco Bay area; there's a stretch where interstates 80 and 580 are coincident with each other, and if you're driving east on 80, you're going west on 580, all while driving *north.*

The New Madrid quake in 1811-12 was so powerful it made the mississippi river flow backwards & landlocked a part of KY which is pretty quirky

Interesting facts. Thanks for sharing 👍

Here's another one: the southern most tip of Ontario is at the same latitude as the nothern most tip of California 🙃

St. Louis city and county are indeed separate. There's been a big effort by several groups to get the city and county to combine. Basically back in the 1800s, the city was rich and the county poor, so the city became independent to not have their tax money go toward the county. Today, the city is poor and the county rich, but the people in the county now don't want their money to go toward city problems. Funny how that stuff works! Great video, very interesting!

Hi Kyle: Many folks who live in Florida (like me) are surprised to learn that the Panama Canal is east of Miami! Also, Jacksonville and Duval County are one as you mentioned the other 4 cities. Ken Adams

“Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!” 😂

2 from Kentucky: 1. Middlesboro is the only city in America that is located inside of a meteor crater 2. Fulton County is non contiguous and has a section that is only accessible by road through Tennessee

With the exception of Alaska, the entire United States is further south than the southernmost point of the island of Great Britain.

Great info 👍🏻

I really enjoyed this video!

During one earthquake in Missouri, the Mississippi River actually moved BACKWARDS for almost two hours [ as the ground beneath, rose up‼️ This was very well documented. 📻🙂

This dude just rattled off county names like nothing. I can’t even list the names of my closest friends and family members

Very interesting. Thank you.

Thanks for the very interesting video. I learned something new.

I live in Charleston South Carolina. If you know where to look, you can still see damage from the earthquake of 1886. From time to time, there are small quakes that you can feel.

One that always surprised people when I was stationed in El Paso is that there is a chunk of New Mexico that actually extends to the south of Texas. There is a spur of that state that extends to the east under Texas, between the border of Mexico. If surprises many when they first go there, and realize that going south of El Paso can see you in New Mexico.

Love this channel

Thanks for sharing this fascinating information. I have travelled most of the continental US and find it quite interesting.

Mexico is commonly referred to as being "South of the border." However, there are places along the Colorado River West of Yuma, AZ where Mexico is North of the border.

"There are some places you have to drie through Canada to get to" No kidding, last time I checked you had an entire state running on that principle.

Love this kind of information video. One addition to your report is that Indianapolis and Marion County are also one government, making a fifth to your list. "Unigov" was instigated by then mayor Richard Lugar in roughly 1968, unifying the city and county governments.

love this channel

The odd reason for West St. Paul being SE of St. Paul. It was named based on reference of a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River. When heading north, anything to the left was west and anything right is east; but with river twisting river like the Mississippi sometimes looking left could be south.

This was a really good video. It was informative and entertaining, and moved along at a good rate. I also like that you got to the point without boring us with some protracted introduction.

This is how you do one of these things. Briskly edited and packed with fun information. So many videos meander endlessly and repetitively before getting to the point teased in the title.

I gotta tell ya sir. I just love these factoids ! Happy to subscribe !

One of my favourite quirks about Canadian geography (and by extension American geography is the following: The most southerly point of Canada is Point Pelee in Ontario (near Windsor/Detroit). More Americans live north of this point, than people live in all of Canada.

Actually , Mt.Whitney and Badwater Basin (Death Valley) are even in the same county.Furnace Creek,the hottest place on earth is in Inyo County too.

I live in Chattanooga, TN as well and I just found your channel today!!

Great video. Really love all the information and your presentation! It may have already been brought up, but another oddity for discontinuous counties is the city of Glendale, Colorado. It is completely surrounded by the City and County of Denver, but it is actually part of Arapahoe County.