I live in the Nome borough. I am about 200 miles WEST of Nome, but still part of the greater Nome Census area. I am closer to Russia than mainland USA. Sometimes my GPS marks me as being in Nome and that can mess up weather data or web searches. Also if sometimes I stand on the west side of the beach, my geo-location marks me as being in Russia.
Fremont County, Idaho has an interesting quirk. It's the only county in the US to border 2 pairs of counties with the same name. It borders Teton County, ID and Teton County, WY, and also Madison County, ID and Madison County, MT. It's also home to Yellowstone's "No Man's Land," the strip of Yellowstone that, because of a quirk in the Constitution, creating a jury is theoretically impossible since no one lives in that part of the park. Fremont County also has the city with the "longest Main Street," Island Park, which is a city that's 26 miles long (yes, miles!) and about 50-100 feet wide for most of its length.
that last one isn’t true at all, unless rhe county has zero residents then there can and will be a jury. and as a national park, a trial can be held anywhere in any of the states in which the park lays. you’re confusing that place with the aborted county in Nevada that was to have zero residents therefore be a literal jail-free murder location
@@bostonrailfan2427 I'm aware of Bullfrog County, NV, but that has more to do with nuclear waste disposal, though if and while the county did exist, that question could be posed. All of Yellowstone National Park falls under the jurisdiction of the US District Court for the District of Wyoming, including the Montana and Idaho portions of the park. They have (near) sole jurisdiction in the non-Wyoming portions of the park since they're the lowest court that fulfills the requirements of the 6th Amendment. The 6th Amendment also requires a jury to be formed from residents of both the state and district in which the crime was committed, and since the Idaho portion of the park is unpopulated, in theory, no jury can be formed and thus a trial cannot proceed. The only time this has even been tested was related to hunting charges in the Montana portion of the park, which does have enough residents to form a jury, however, the case ended in a guilty plea, so no jury ever had to be formed.
@@EthanNeal why don’t you actually look it up and stop talking out of your ass because you are wrong: it was exactly what you are claiming and why it was killed.
One county I find interesting is Millard County in Utah. The county seat is the city of Fillmore. County is Millard and the county seat is Fillmore. Millard Fillmore was the U.S. President when the county was created in 1851. Fun fact, Fillmore also served as the first capital of Utah Territory before it got moved to Great Salt Lake City, later shorted to Salt Lake City.
I love the counties where they plus their county seats are someone's actual name (i.e. here it's Fillmore, Millard County). I live in Collin County, Texas -- named for Collin McKinney -- and the county seat is McKinney.
We have a county like this in Texas. Jones County, the county seat is Anson. Named after the last president of Texas, Anson Jones. They didn't name the county after him while he was still in office, though.
This particular video does contain some mis-information though. He is wrong about those being the ONLY city-counties in the US. Baltimore MD and EVERY incorporated city in Virginia are also city-counties.
I thought it was so cool that you mentioned Weirton, WV (I could actually see my house in one of the pictures). I had no idea that it was the only city that touches 3 separate states. Funnily enough, I’m 44 years old and lived here my whole life, and every single job I’ve ever had has been in Ohio or Pennsylvania.
Not to be that guy, but I don't actually think that's true. After looking a bit on Google Maps, Dubuque, IA, Sioux City, IA, White Rock, SD, and Keokuk, IA are a few others that touch 3 states. Unless I misunderstand what they mean by touching 3 states, I don't think Weirton is the only one. I will say tat it's cool how Weirton's city limits essentially reach across the entire state, almost like a bridge between Ohio and Pennsylvania!
@@jrhaven It is one of only three communities in the United States that borders two other states on two sides, and its own state on the other two sides, the others being Hancock, Maryland and Memphis, Tennessee.
How can you have lived there but your only jobs have been in two other states? Your main/mailing address may be Wyoming, but you’ve obviously lived elsewhere.😕
@@FYMASMD because he's in Weirton, West Virginia (not Wyoming) which is 5 minutes from both Ohio and Pennsylvania. You're in the wrong state; get a new map.
I'm surprised that you did not mention Lake of the woods county, MN. Part of county can only be accessed through Canada or by boat via Lake of the woods.
There's another interesting county near there. Red Lake County, MN is the only county in the US to only border 2 other counties that isn't an island or on an international boundary.
Orleans Parish, Louisiana is coterminous with the city of New Orleans, and there is no separate parish government. The only office that keeps Orleans Parish's name is the sheriff's department, which just runs the city jails.
If you do part 2, you might add that Nebraska has 2 counties with NO INCORPORATED TOWNS: Banner & McPherson. In both counties, the county seat (Harrisburg & Tryon, respectively) is a Census-Designated Place. Also, Knox County’s seat, Center, has a population of less than 100, even though the county also contains Creighton, whose population is over 1100.
There are several counties without any incorporated towns. The most populous is Chesterfield County, south of Richmond, which had a population of 364,548 at the 2020 Census. [ETA: This is wrong. See below. Baltimore County is significantly bigger. See responses that follow.] Virginia has a strange structure with counties because they have 95 of them, but they also have 38 indendent cities that aren't part of any county. If unincorporated towns are your thing, Hawaii is probably the most anomalous. The only formal level of government in Hawaii is the county. There are 5 of them, one of which is tiny and featured in the video. The City and County of Honolulu is the only incorporated government entity in Hawaii. The other three counties are not incorporated. All non-Honolulu cities/towns are unincorporated and used for statistical and convenience purposes, not governmental.
@@howardcitizen2471 , you're correct. I saw my alleged fact in two different places, but, yes, Baltimore County doesn't have any incorporated places. It may be that people confused the independent city of Balitmore with the Baltimore County. That does explain why UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) includes "County" in its name.
Echols County GA was another example of this, until the whole county decided to also incorporate as a city in 2008 to access funding sources only cities could obtain.
I you draw a line dead east from the most northern point in West Virginia, you would almost be in New York City. It's mind boggling this was the most northern point in the South.
Here's another fun fact related to the South and NYC. Using the Köppen Climate Classification, the predominant climate type of the South (Cfa - humid subtropical) extends up the East Coast all the way through New York City and even into Boston, MA! Now it's a borderline humid subtropical, but it's still wild to see on climate type maps
While Kalawao County is the smallest US county by area, it's surprisingly isn't the smallest US county by population, as that title belongs to Loving County in Texas! Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in Alaska is the largest county-equivalent in the US, but the largest actual county in the US is San Bernardino County in CA at over 20,000 square miles. And Louisiana has parishes and not counties because quite simply, they were officially Roman Catholic during the French and Spanish colonial periods. Wish Monroe County, FL was talked about here as it's split between the Keys and a piece of the mainland, the mainland makes up 87 percent of its area yet only 17 people (2020 census) lived there. Something else you didn't mention here are the independent cities of Virginia. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as "cities" have been "independent cities", also called "free cities", since 1871. Virginia's independent cities are not politically part of a county, even though geographically they may be completely surrounded by one. It may serve as the county seat of an adjacent county, even though the city by definition is not part of that county. There are two classes of city. The primary difference relates to the court system. A first-class city (like Richmond) has its own District Court and also its own Circuit Court. A second-class city (like Norton or Emporia) has its own District Courts, but not its own Circuit Court.
The way virginia sets up its counties/cities is pretty interesting because its largest “city” is Virgina Beach, but its not really much of a traditional city and more of a county sized suburban area for the main city of Norfolk. And them theres Arlington which is a very urban area but its not a city, just a county
There used to be a county in Nevada with absolutely no permanent residents. It had a county commissioner and a sheriff and a few people who commuted into work, but not a single person actually lived there. I don't remember the county, but it was established when it was announced that Yucca Mountain would become a nuclear waste repository, Nye County didn't want anything to do with it, so Bullfrog County was created to manage the site (until the Supreme Court came in and said it was unconstitutional to create a county with no people).
When you're in Oklahoma City in Oklahoma County in the state of Oklahoma you can also be on Oklahoma Avenue and look at the Oklahoma River. The rest of the state has some wonderful native place names but whoever did the naming in OKC must have run out out of ideas.
The naming was probably intentional. So that the city would be in the exact middle of the state, and the homonym of Oklahoma would represent everyone across the state.
There is also a relatively new Oklahoma City Boulevard where I-40 used to run through the city. The Oklahoma River is a portion of what had been called the North Canadian River and still is outside the city.
Just a few notes: 1. Somewhat surprised that you didn't mention independent cities. Virginia has about 30 or so, and some major cities like Baltimore, St Louis, and Carson City are like this. I do appreciate the mention of consolidated counties though, I'm from Lexington, KY and it is one of the biggest consolidated counties in the country. Though the most interesting is Tribune, KS, which technically is the 5th largest city in the country by area due to it's consolidation with Greeley County. 2. On St. Martin Parish, the other discontiguous county equivalent (as far as I know) is Fulton County, KY due to the Kentucky Bend. Overall a good video, keep up the hard work!
Norfolk County in MA is also discontiguous but in two places! The towns of Brookline (to the north) and Cohasset (to the east) do not border the rest of the county.
Besides Kalawao County, people don't really live on Molokai in general. It is estimated that roughly seven thousand people live on the whole island, an island that's about 38 miles in length. The island has an agrarian economy, driven primarily by cattle ranching, pineapple production, sugarcane production and small-scale farming. The first farmer on Molokai to grow, produce and mill sugar and coffee commercially was Rudolph Wilhelm Meyer, an immigrant from Germany who arrived in 1850. Much of the island is inhospitable. The entire north coast is girded by plunging cliffs and pounded by giant ocean swells. Besides its north coast, most of the eastern half is made up of steep mountains and deep canyons. And most of the western half is typically dry. The entire island is raked by stiff trade winds. It's a shame the island doesn't get much attention as Molokai is actually quite a cool place as on top of having the longest white sand beach and continuous fringing coral reef in Hawaii, its northern sea cliffs are the tallest sea cliffs in the world, AND according to a Hawaiian legend, the famous hula originated there! It has been said that Laka, goddess of the hula, gave birth to the dance on the island at a sacred place in Kaʻana. After Laka died, her remains were hidden beneath the hill Puʻu Nana.
4:35 Thanks, I was really looking for a place where I could finally dispose of my many mistresses, thank you for showing me exactly where I could do that! Fr though I always love these niche little videos about places that I'll probably never go, but happen to live in the same country as. What a crazy nation we've got here...
US Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa prides himself in the fact that he has visited all 99 counties in Iowa at least once every year for the 42 years he has been in the US Senate.
Awesome video! I personally would've included Cimarron County, OK. As you likely know, it's the only county in the US to touch with counties from five different states, and has three state tripoints on its borders because of it. Also coz Black Mesa lol
Here in Virginia, cities are mostly independent jurisdictions from the counties. This results in several cases, such as Fairfax County, where the county seat (Fairfax City) is not technically inside the county itself.
I grew up there! Fairfax City, despite being the county seat, also has a tiny exclave in it (about two blocks just next to 'downtown') that's part of Fairfax County, which contains the courthouse and jail, and until recently, a portion of the county administrative offices. The City is also one of the few county equivalents in VA to not have its own sheriff (they use the County's) or its own court system (they have their own courtroom in the county court). I think the only others that fall into that same weird category are Vienna, Clifton (both also in Fairfax) and Ashland (in Hanover).
He may get to it, but the City of St. Louis is not within any county, including the County of St. Louis. The city has its only "county" offices, such as sheriff. It is the only city in MIssouri not within a county.
In Virginia, ALL "cities" are independent and not located in a county. Under Virginia law, anything designated as a "city" must be independent from any county. However, "towns" are a different type of entity and can exist within a county.
Carson City was the county seat of Ormsby County. In 1969, the city expanded its boundaries to include the entire county, then was declared an independent city.
@@jaimeogas There is a historical marker in Carson City, across the street from the Capitol and near the Nevada State Museum that denotes Ormsby County.
@@katieandkevinsears7724The mint in Carson City is not that weird since Virginia City is located nearby. The results of the Comstock Lode lead to the railway being built in order to transport the silver and gold from the mines in Virginia City down to the mint in Carson City which made silver and gold coins from 1870-1893. The mint was built during the height of the silver boom, if it had existed before then more gold and silver coins would have been produced.
Oakland County, Michigan is interesting because it’s the most populous county in the U.S. that doesn’t have a single city with a population greater than 100,000
That's the county I've lived in my whole life, yet I never knew this fact. I obviously knew that it didn't have a city with 100,000 people, with Troy being the most populated with around 87,000 people. But never knew that it was the most populous county without a city with 100,000 people.
And it’s the only county with more than 1,000,000 people that doesn’t have a city with more than 100,000 people right? I think “counties that doesn’t contain a single municipality with more than 1/10 of its population” could be an interesting subject for a video
There is a Texas County in Oklahoma and a Texas County in Missouri but no Texas County in Texas...and the county seat of Texas County, MO is Houston; so you have Houston, Texas with a population of 2.3 million people and Houston, Texas County, Missouri with a population of 2.3 thousand...
I always thought it was weird that there is in Missouri a St Louis City county as well as a St. Louis county that is the suburbs. Did you miss that one?
The City of Saint Louis was originally in Saint Louis County, but the city voted to secede from the county in the late 19th century. I believe the city is not OFFICIALLY a county (the official term is "Independent City" ... not the City of Independence, that's on the other side of the state) but in most practical ways it's treated as if it were a county. Missouri also has the City of Clinton and Clinton County, but those two are about 100 miles apart and were independently named after the same guy (DeWitt Clinton).
One county I find unusal is Monroe County FL it's the Florida Keys but it also has a mainland part with next to no population. I am surprised Kyle never mentioned this one because I think it's vert interesting.
I heard that the only mainland settlement, Flamingo, has 19 people. Fun fact: at a rental house that most of my immediate family went to for a week in Branson, there were more people in there than in Monroe County’s mainland
Flamingo is uninhabited. Hurricane Charley (in 2004) devastated the town, and the few structures there were all condemned. The National Park Service relocated their employees to a less remote location in Dade County.
Fun fact: There are 115 teams, in the four major sports, that play in the U.S. Only Two of those teams play in counties that voted for Trump in 2020. Oklahoma county (Oklahoma) Thunder Brown county ( Wisconsin) packers
Different from the city-counties you mentioned, there are also some U.S. cities that are completely independent of any county: St. Louis, MO; Baltimore, MD; Carson City, NV; and 38 cities in Virginia. There's also Washington, D.C., although I'm not sure exactly how the National Capital is categorized.
@@muttimerewifey Yes, there's a cluster of 8 contiguous cities in the "Hampton Roads" region of Southeast Virginia, none of which are part of any county, although some of them are bigger than regular counties. There are a total of 38 "independent cities" in Virginia, but only 3 in the rest of the USA combined.
@@muttimerewifey, Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities, which function as counties, but not by name. The ones you listed are independent cities. Baltimore, St. Louis, and Carson City are the only other independent cities in the US, which are slightly different from consolidated city-counties like Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. Independent cities don't even nominally have a county government. Meanwhile, consolidated city-counties may include enclaves that are outside the city, but part of the county. Many consolidated city-counties have different names like Macon and Bibb County in Georgia.
There are more city-counties that you didn’t mention, such as Baltimore, MD, St. Louis, MO, and many independent cities in Virginia such as Virginia Beach and Norfolk
Baltimore and St. Louis are technically independent cities, surrounded by Baltimore County and St. Louis County respectively. In Maryland, we say that we have 23 counties and one city. You could say those are county-equivalents like the parishes or the bureaus he mentioned, but I can see why it wasn't mentioned.
@@olumidetheeel I'm not sure what the difference is but St. Louis City also operates county government and elects their county official separately from the city officials.
I havent gotten to that part of the vieeo yet, but its true thet Baltimore and St. Louis are technically "independent cities", as is Carson City NV. However other examples of true consolidated city-counties are Nashville, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver and New Orleans
They should split it north and south. The north would remain Clark County, with the city of Las Vegas as county seat. The south half of metro Las Vegas could be a new county centered on Henderson, and should include the famous Las Vegas strip in Paradise. Maybe name it Colorado County after the river.
Nantucket is doubly interesting for being the only consolidated Town and County in the US. And for weird government bits, until dissolution, Suffolk County’s government was legally an office inside the Boston City government, even though Suffolk and Boston do not cover the same exact land area. Also, Barnstable County is quite funny because the enabling legislation for its government establishes it as the “Cape Cod Regional Government” and has a rather fascinating electoral system where each town elects a representative whose vote is then weighted to population-one town has 20% of the vote, and another has less than 1%.
Related is that Brookline, MA (which is pretty much in Boston), wanted so badly to not be a part of Boston or absorbed by Boston (as it had absorbed places which were once their own towns like Roxbury, JP, Mattapan, Dorchester), it was part of Norfolk County, thus surrounded by Suffolk County and not connected to the rest of Norfolk County. Barnstable in general has a weird government and setup because of its size and different “villages” like Hyannis, which is not technically its own town, just part of Barnstable. I’m from Bristol County (now I live in Plymouth County). Because our counties are anachronistic, there are many school districts that cross county lines (especially vocational schools). One that comes to mind is Bridgewater (Plymouth County) and Raynham (Bristol). Acushnet (one of the only towns in the state with no traffic lights) is in Bristol County and has the choice to go to New Bedford High School (Bristol), but not NB Voc. Instead, they can go to Old Colony (mostly Plymouth County). However, the agricultural high school is by county. I don’t know much about other counties, but the southeast of the state is where I’m from and live so I know it well.
Unless youre making a distinction between "town" and "city", there are several other consolidated city-counties in the US. And if you are making a distinction between "town" and "city", that gets further murkified by the fact that, in New England, a town is more like what other states would call a "township"
@@fletchbg I was actually making a distinction between city and town in this case because I find it rather amusing that nantucket is a solitary town combined with a county, especially when the state basically consolidates certain information between them and Dukes (MV-and officially the “County of Dukes County” lol) when releasing information by county (for things like covid numbers)
@@jbm71 I have not gotten WV down pat yet, but I have so far memorized all the counties in New England as well as NY, PA, DE, MD, FL, AL, MS, OH, MI, MT, CO, AZ, ID, NV, CA, HI, OR and WA.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Monroe County, FL. All of the inhabited part is made up of islands (FL keys) that is the only living coral reef in the continental US, while the uninhabited mainland is cut off from the islands by Dade County and is basically all part of Everglades National Park.
the leprocy colony in Molokai was initially run by Belgian missionary Father Damien (jozef de Veuster) the later Saint Damian of Molokai. Hawaii put a statue of him as one of their two representative figures in the capitol in Washington DC! he's the only non-american (native or otherwise) among these 100 statues...
I lived in a city/county once, lol. It's also attached to another city on some things. The city and county of Durham NC. Then there is the whole Raleigh-Durham thing lol.
How governments work and their jurisdictions is so interesting at local levels. So much attention is paid to the Federal government that quarks such as these are ignored. Growing up in Maine and New Hampshire counties were nothing more than a sign on the road. Moving to Florida, the county you live is sometimes more important to identifying you than the city. County commission have an insane amount of power and some bigger ones like Miami-Dade and Duval/Jacksonville can act independently from Tallahassee and the state government to some degree.
What you describe is the entire South, not just FL. That goes back to how the South was settled. The Counties were formed first, then the city. In fact, marriage licenses were developed in the South because the majority of the population lived outside of the towns, and therefore the population was not able to read banns posted on church doors. Of course, county commissions in the south have tremendous power - they oversee government for the majority of the population of that area. In New England, the towns were formed and populated first, then the counties formed. This is what irritates me about people who move to other regions without doing their research. They think they know everything because they think everything is the same everywhere, then expect the community to change to be what they left. Why leave if you want everything to stay the same? What you describe isn't interesting or insane. It's the norm in most of the US.
Did you know that there is more dirty money surrounding local positions in politics than federal positions? Local voting is more important than federal voting.
Clark County, NV (home of Las Vegas) funded most of the 50ish mile partial loop road to federal interstate standards. It's believed to be the only county road in the US to have built a county road to this standard. The only sections to get state and federal funds was the interchanges with I-515 near the southern terminus, I-15 south of the LV Strip and I-15 (again) just south of the LV Speedway. It will be eventually handed to the state in the late 2020s and renamed to I-215 once its completed. This was started in 1994 and built around 50 miles of new freeway and exits in about 30 years. There were rumors if they went with federal money, it would take closer to 40 to 50+ years.
Functions allotted to counties varied state by state in even county by county. Barnstable County Mass. is coterminus with Cape Cod so makes a good regional Government for the Cape. Under its 1780 Constitution STILL IN FORCE but heavily amended since (KEEP quiet about the District of Maine!) Mass. apportioned the 40 State Senate seats by county according to the TAX REVENUE paid in by each county. Yet the State Senate had only 31 members! Its First Duty upon meeting (Annual Elections until 1920!) was to choose NINE of its members to be Governor's Councillors whereupon they would immediately cease to be State Senators. Councikors went to being elected by district in 1844. Mass. legislature wasn't apportioned by population until 1858!
Growing up in Monroe County, FL always thought it was an unusual county made up of the Keys and a larger disconnected uninhabited section of the Everglades..
Stayed the night in Los Alamos after visiting Bandelier National Monument last month. Beautiful area. Would definitely go back! Was our second trip to NM and now we talk about it more than Colorado.
Clark County, Nevada is the the first (and possibly only) County in the US to have built a freeway to interstate freeway standards almost entirely on county funding with very little state or federal funding. Plans are once CC-215 is complete in sometime around 2025 to 2030, the county will hand it over to the state and become I-215. Parts of CC-215, from the I-515 (now signed I-11)/US 93-95 to the I-15, have been handed to NDOT and already have been signed as I-215. Locals think it will be handed over to the state and completely signed as I-215 when the US-95 (Future I-11) interchange is done in 2024/25.
I lived in Los Alamos County briefly. It is a weird place. I graduated from highschool there. The cops liked to hand out jaywalking tickets to the highschool kids. I guess that they are bored.
There used to be an uninhabited county in Nevada named Bullfrog County from 1987 to 1989. It was located in the middle of Nye County and was supposed to host a nuclear waste storage near Yucca Mountain. It was abolished partly due to the fear that someone would commit murder there and that the state would be unable to bring them to justice due the lack of county court.
Another interesting county in the US is Dauphin County, PA (where Harrisburg is located) The county was formed to provide Asylum for the French Monarchy during the French Revolution!
Vineyard Haven is not a town. It's an unincorporated village in the Town of Tisbury. Nantucket is both a county and a town, like Bloomfield, CO. The government is a town government with a Town Meeting and Board of Selectmen. The selectmen are ex-facto county commissioners. Martha's Vineyard is divided into 6 towns and part of Dukes County along with the Elizabeth Islands which make up the Town of Gosnold. The western most Elizabeth Island is Cuttyhunk were most of the towns residents are as the other islands are all privately owned. In Norfolk County, there is still a county government.
In my county, the main town has a unique name. The Pennsylvanians came up from the south and the Yankees came downs from the north and met at the northern tip of Keuka lake and established a town with a mix of their names, Penn Yan. Its the only Penn Yan in the world.
georgia used to have the “county unit” system until the 60s. basically politicians were elected by how many counties they won instead of votes. having so many counties meant that rural interests dominated the state
Surprised you didn’t mention Menominee County Wisconsin. The Menominee Indian Reservation is in the entire county. Jefferson Parish, Louisiana is also discontiguous as. Grand Isle is separated from the rest of the parish. Also Door County, Wisconsin has several islands including Washington Island and multiple other islands in the Bay of Green Bay. You can access Washington Island by a ferry
I’m surprised you didn’t mention St. Louis, Baltimore, or all the VA cities being independent cities (basically the same as a consolidated city-county), or New York comprising of 5 different entire counties.
In NYC the five counties are considered Boroughs: Brooklyn is Kings Co, Staten Is. is Richmond Co. Manhattan is New York Co. Bronx and Queens retain their county names. I lived there for years and they're commonly referred to as Boroughs.
The five COUNTIES comprising NYC and which are coterminously BOROUGHS of the city do not have any kind of full-scale of county governments. They have only three county officials: District Attorney (elected); Public Administrator; County Clerk (both appointed by the sitting Supreme Court justices of the County--and the Supreme Court is NOT the highest court of the state-it is equivalent to the Superior Court everywhere else). I am not certain of whether the state or city fund the above mentioned three county officials.) @@Greman4
I was kinda surprised that talking about Hancock County WV didn't lead into Washington County MD, home of the town of Hancock which is situated at the state's narrowest point. It's less than 2 miles of Maryland separating Pennsylvania and West Virginia
You mentioned the mints but the picture was of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Oops. Also, the entity known as the City and County of San Francisco (it takes a singular verb) was established in 1856, a long time before other, somewhat similar jurisdictions evolved.
@@eastendhero I see something about the two entities being coextensive but not having a unified government. According to Wikipedia, "Philadelphia County is a legal nullity. All county functions were assumed by the city in 1952. The city has been coterminous with the county since 1854." If that's correct, there were separate governments until 1952. San Francisco, on the other hand, has had a single government since 1856. Or am I reading that incorrectly?
It makes sense that the San Juan islands are all in the same county, but as a recent transplant I don’t understand why Island County WA includes both Whidbey and Camano Islands. Sure they are very close to each other as the crow flies, but if you lived on Camano you’d have to drive at least 2 hours through 2 other counties to get to the county seat in Coupeville.
I would've added Fulton County, GA. The reason it has such a strange shape is due to two previously existing counties being merged with it around 100 years ago.
I think Fulton County is shaped like a duck! Its beak is the pointy part that touches Gwinnett and Forsyth Counties; its body is the “fat” part that touches Douglas and Fayette. Fulton County is at least 70 miles long from end to end.
I love county lore. Inyo County, California, is a land of extremes: it's home to the highest elevation in the contiguous U.S. (Mt. Whitney--bordering Tulare), the lowest elevation, and the hottest location in the U.S. (Death Valley, which is both the lowest and the hottest and is only 90 miles away from Mt. Whitney).
Virginia is also unusual in that it is the only state where cities are completely separate from counties. You cannot stand in a city and county at the same time.
Norfolk County MA (which is where I lived for the first five years of my life) is the other discontiguous county, with two exclaves. Brookline because parts of the county joined Suffolk County when it was annexed by Boston but Brookline stayed as a separate town, and Cohasset because when Norfolk was formed, they decided to join, but neighboring Hingham and Hull wanted to stay part of Suffolk County, later switching to Plymouth. Bristol County MA (where I've lived almost my whole life) is also one of the 11 pairs of counties or parishes which share a name with a neighboring county, being Bristol County RI (where I briefly lived). The others are Big Horn MT WY, Escambia AL FL, Kent DE MD, Park MT WY, Pike IL MO, Sabine TX LA, San Juan NM UT, Teton ID WY, Union AR LA, and Vermilion IL and Vermillion IN (spelt differently). Don't know the stories behind the rest, but originally Bristol RI was part of Bristol MA with its seat in Bristol. Though in 1746 after a border dispute, three of the towns (including Bristol) were transferred to RI. Also Bristol RI is the third-smallest county by area, after Kalawao HI and New York NY.
note about the neighboring Bristol, RI: it was once part of Massachusetts so kept the county name after being given… Massachusetts is the only state where the county line moves when land is annexed, hence the annexation of Dorchester and Brighton causing Brookline to be encircled
And the switch to Plymouth has to do with the Gerrymandered Plymouth congressional district that by custom gets a seat on commitees related to fisheries & ocean, which was recently held by Gerry Studds, descendant of Gov Elbridge Gerry.
As a fellow GeoNerd have yet to see a video of yours that I have not fully enjoyed. The oddity that I would add is New York City. Each of the 5 units is not only a separate borough but a separate county.
When I has age 5 or 6 ( mid 50s ) we went to visit family in Los Alamos, Uncle worked at the labs, Getting in to "town" or "county" we had to go through fenced security gates, Uncle was called to come vouch for us as family. Fun visit, but kind of strange seeing such a large number of Military personal all over.
Orange County NY has a high and rapidly increasing percentage of Yiddish speakers. By now it may be the county with the greatest percentage of people speaking other than English/Spanish/Indigenous languages.
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania checking in... at 8:56... mints don't print bills, that's reserved for Fort Worth and DC at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Philadelphia mints coins.
So about Yukon-Koyukuk: it's not exactly a real thing. What is the real thing is the "Unorganized Borough", which is just a name for all land in Alaska that isn't organized into a borough and has no (official) borough-level services or government. It's much larger, and does contain a few larger towns, like Bethel and Nome. I'm not sure if you could call it a "county", it's more the absence of county. Which, in itself, is very strange. The census area designation is mostly used on the federal level, or for data management purposes.
At 9:26 you have a graphic that says “Weirton, WV is the only City in America to touch 3 states”. This is incorrect. In Iowa we have 2 cities touching 3 states, including its own. Dubuque, IA also touches WI and IL. Sioux City, IA also touches NE and SD. Interestingly even though Sioux City is on Iowa’s western border you travel south to reach South Sioux City, NE and north to reach North Sioux City South Dakota! Both cities border Sioux City.
Technically what is legitimately unique about Weirton, WV (and not true about the others you mentioned) is that it is the only city which borders two other states without being located at the tri-point of the three states.
really enjoyed this video. if you end up making a follow up i have two interesting ones in the great state of texas, both of which are named after somebody’s first and last name jeff davis county, tx: shaped like a pentagon, it is the only county in the US that touches a foreign country at a single point due to its shape tom green county, tx: named after confederate soldier thomas green, not the comedian. one of the most unusually shaped counties in the country because of a long narrow strip of land that sticks out like the barrel of a rifle. from wikipedia: “Tom Green County has a long, narrow strip of land extending to the west. This unusual feature is because Reagan County to the west used to be part of Tom Green County, and the state of Texas required that all counties have a contiguous land route to their county seat. The small strip of land served to connect the two main regions. In 1903, the residents of the western section voted to form Reagan County, while the same vote decided that the connecting strip would remain part of Tom Green County.”
Jeff Davis County has long intrigued me, and yet you just taught me something I never knew: that piece about it touching Mexico at a single point. Very cool. But now I'm going to be very picky and argue semantics with you. You say JDC is "shaped 'like' a pentagon". Well, it actually *is* a pentagon, as it has five straight sides. And yet, in my humble opinion, it is *NOT* shaped like a pentagon (even though it is a pentagon). How can I say that? Show an outline of JDC to 100 people who are not from West Texas. Exactly *zero* of them will say, "Hey, that looks like a pentagon!" because it looks like an irregular diamond or some other quadrilateral. Unless you tell people that it's a pentagon, they'll never suspect it, and even if you do them it's a pentagon, most will give up before finding that tiny little edge on the south side of the county that gives it its fifth side. But here's hoping Kyle will take your suggestion and include it in his next county video.
Forgot to mention Baltimore city (along the list with SF, Denver and Philadelphia) is its own county, and Baltimore County is also its own county but doesn't contain the city of Baltimore. Also could have added DC to the list which acts as a city, county, and "state" all in one.
Making US county quizzes I've learned a bit about them myself. For example, CT has officially switched to Planning Regions as county equivalents. Also San Juan County in Utah borders the most other counties, 14. Also at 7:58 it says the city in WV is the only one bordering three states...that's not true, there are 8 more, including Memphis, Dubuque and Joplin, MO which stretches all the way to the OK border.
Technically what is legitimately unique about Weirton, WV (and not true about the others you mentioned) is that it is the only city which borders two other states without being located at the tri-point of the three states.
@@derekschinke2512 It's actually not..according to the census boundaries there are discontiguous portions of Joplin that touch the OK and KS border (you won't see them on Google maps you need the actual census boundary shapefile). Joplin actually has a tripoint marker within its city limits.
Baltimore City, Maryland is its own self-governing government and it is surrounded by Baltimore County, but is emphatically not part of Baltimore County!
Loved this! I really appreciate all of your content! I was surprised you didn’t at least mention Virginia’s independent cities (as a general variation on county equivalents that is unique to VA). I suspect you’ve mentioned this before, but Arlington County in VA has no incorporated city within it.
How large the number of counties the least populated states is mind boggling. Nebraska has 93 counties with just under 2 million residents. It has over 200 times the number of counties per capita than Arizona.
Jefferson County, WA is particularly fascinating - it's on the Olympic Peninsula, population ~33k, its eastern side is on the Salish Sea with the largest city (Port Townsend) and most of the people, its eastern side is on the Pacific (with places like Queets and Oil City), and between them? Olympic National Park, which is essentially impassable.
Michigan has the largest county in the US that has the highest percentage of water as the territory with 91 percent of the territory being water and only 9 percent being land. Keweenaw County is the name. And the reason for this is unique. That's because all the water from the mainland to Isle Royale is in the county, which includes Isle Royale itself. And there's nearly no people who live in the county. Only about 2,000 people live in the county, which is nearly 6,000 square miles in total area. So not only is it the largest county by area in the Michigan, it's the least populated.
How about giant Nye county? Tonapah, the seat is a virtual ghost town, and 3 hours south the population explodes. How long will that stand? Also isn't Reno one of those City/County combos? Great channel.
Denver also expanded in the 90's by annexing land in Adams County to build the new Denver International Airport. DIA alone accounts for 1/3 of the total Denver County landmass.
We used to go to Los Alamos about once a month to see my wife's specialist, because she was the best rheumatologist in the state. Thanks to the lab, Los Alamos also has the best grocery store in the state, with an excellent selection of food from around the world. It's definitely an interesting place to visit, if you get a chance.
Here’s a little quirk for you: the city proper of Baltimore is an independent city, but surrounding it is Baltimore County, which has its own county government separate from the city of Baltimore.
Sandoval County in New Mexico is also discontiguous. It's hard to see on a map but there is a small portion of the county adjacent to Santa Fe County which was separated from the rest of the county when the Federal Government helped create, you guessed it, Los Alamos County.
hi GK. city of Dubuque also borders WI and IL (technically the river). Also Menomonie county in wisconsin has no incorporated cities within the county.
Interesting video. However, the last sections mentions four cities that are their own counties. It seems you missed the City of St Louis. Which is not only its own county, but is completely surrounded on the Missouri side by a wholly separate St. Louis County!
