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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
As far as I know, there is only one state border in the USA which includes an arc of a circle. This is the Twelve Mile Arc, which forms almost all of the border between Delaware and Pennsylvania.
According to several sources, Saskatchewan is the only Canadian province whose borders are not based on any natural features.
Colorado and Wyoming are the only US states whose shapes are close to being perfect rectangles. However, even they have a few minor deviations in their borders. Utah is the only other state all of whom's borders are very nearly straight lines.
Maine is the only US state which only has one other US state as a neighbour. However, Maine does also border the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Québec.
Missouri and Tennessee tie for position as the US states with the most neighbouring states, eight in each case.
There are two very small areas of the USA which are cut off by parts of Canada, namely Minnesota's Northwest Angle (west of Lake Of The Woods), and Point Roberts in Washington State (near the Twawassen ferry terminal, close to Vancouver).
Michigan is unusual in that it consists of two separate peninsulas, separated by the Straits Of Mackinaw.
Why are many of the US state borders in the east along natural features, while many of those in the west are along lines of latitude and longitude? A possible explanation is that the state borders in the west were decided much later, after the scientific methods of determining latitude and longitude had been perfected. My thanks to Richard Gosnell for raising this conjecture.
The Great Auk offers an entertaining online quiz about US state borders. (External link verified Sep-03)
Ed Stephan has an excellent animated GIF file which shows the history of the expansion of the USA and the development of the state borders. Ensure that your browser is set to display animated GIF files, otherwise you will only see the first frame. (External link verified Sep-03)
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Most recently modified 13-Sep-07