Geography Oddities & Interesting Facts Part 6 #Geography #Historyandculture

Howdy, it's Kyle with another installment of Geographic Oddities and Interesting Facts. This is part 6 in the series that goes back about 8 years ago. I believe this was the first series like this on YouTube that just went over some interesting oddities and facts like this. There have been a bunch of other channels do the same stuff since then and usually just covering the ones I've covered in the first 5 videos like this. But as you can imagine with this being part 6 and each one covering about 10 oddities, being about 60 oddities deep, we're getting to some pretty deep cuts here, some more subtle type oddities, so maybe these will be less interesting to where the AI channels won't mine them out for their own. But yeah, this is part 6 of Geographic Oddities and Interesting Facts. I'm going to start off with a town in California right along the Mexican border called Cucumba Hot Springs. It's a small town, there are only about 500 people there and as the name implies there are some hot springs in the area. It was one of those places out in the desert that people would go to these hot springs for medicinal or recreational use. There was a big fancy resort there, many celebrities and rich people had second homes there. And back when the town was big for luxurious second homes, the wealthiest part of town was called Snob Hill. But what makes this town interesting is that it's the only town on the Mexican border where there is no corresponding town on the Mexican side. Every other border city in the US has some type of town or village if not a big city on the Mexican side of the border. There are a few buildings on the Mexican side but it almost looks like most of them are abandoned. So again, it's just this town of Cucumba Hot Springs and no twin town. The fancy hotel closed in 1983 and access was blocked to the big public hot springs there with cement. And I love this sign, I'm not sure if vortex and hot springs are two things you want in the same sentence. Sounds like one of those Final Destination movies, you're in the hot spring and you get sucked in like a whirlpool. So it's quite odd with approximately 30 border towns along the Mexican border in the US, Cucumba Hot Springs is the only one with no other town on the Mexican side. For this next interesting fact, I'm going to Slope County in North Dakota. There are only about 650 people in the entire county. It's the least populous county in North Dakota and the 18th least populous county in the country. And this was not one of the original counties of North Dakota when it became a state, it became a separate county by popular vote in 1914 by breaking off from the now neighboring county of Billings. But why this is fascinating is that every single year of its existence, Slope County and the largest town in it, Marmoth, have been losing population. This county came into existence in 1914, so the first time on the census is 1920 and the county has lost population every year. Largest town, Marmoth, same thing. I guess technically speaking, the largest town grew a little bit at the very beginning, but yeah, it's been dropping since. And as far as I know, this is the only county in the country that has been losing population every single year of its existence. And this is a very pretty part of North Dakota. It's home to White Butte, the high point of the state. It's right near that really desolate tri-state point with Montana and South Dakota. However, this is not home to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, but this is still a pretty nice area. So yes, Slope County and Marmoth, North Dakota, take your family of 10 there and change the tides of history by making this place gain population for the first time ever. As kind of a segue from that previous oddity, I'm going to go a couple of states down to Nebraska and talk about just how many counties it has with fewer than a thousand people. There are 12 counties in Nebraska with a population under 1,000, which is the most in the country. McPherson, Arthur, Blaine, Grant, Loop, Thomas, Banner, and Logan counties all have less than 1,000 people. The only other states with counties less than 1,000 people are Texas with eight of them out of their 254 counties, Montana with four of them, and there's one each in North and South Dakota, and the one in North Dakota is Slope. But not only does Nebraska have 12 under 1,000, eight of them are contiguous. And not just that, there are several counties right around there that are just in the 1,000 population range. So I made a real quick map here showing some of these counties. The ones highlighted in red are the ones with less than 1,000 people, the ones with purple are in the 1,000 range, and the ones in green are in the 2,000 range, and the orange one is the biggest county in the state. It has 5,000 people, but it is that big. And as the numbers imply, this is a very desolate part of Nebraska. Most of the ag in the state is to the east and south of here. This is the Sandhills region, some nice subtle beauty, a little cattle grazing, but not much else. I mentioned one of these counties in my video on towns that are dying soon to be ghost town, but many of the towns in this region could be included in that video. The next interesting fact I want to talk about regards the American Alligator. The American Alligator species is known to have a natural range that covers 11 states. If you were to guess the 11 states, you'd probably get 10 of them right. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. If you were to guess what that last one is, would you guess it's Oklahoma? If you were to guess Oklahoma, you'd be right because the southeastern corner of the state is part of the natural habitat range of the American Alligator. That southeastern corner of the state is along the Red River. You have many sloughs and wetlands there, and there are some oxbow lakes of the Red River, and many of these areas are where you're going to find the Alligators. Now certainly there are nowhere near as many gators in Oklahoma as there are in Louisiana, but there are at least a few hundred that's called Oklahoma home. It's also worth noting that gators are making their way up the east coast. Right now there's debate with biologists as to whether or not Virginia is part of the natural range because there have been a few sighted occasionally in the Great Dismal Swamp in southeast Virginia, but even then it wouldn't be surprising to find gators here even though it is pretty far north. But despite that, it's harder to wrap your head around the fact that there are American Alligators in Oklahoma. Ok, so now I want to talk about a handful of highways in the country with interesting numbering. The first is U.S. Highway 10, and as the number implies, it's a major east-west route in the more northern part of the country. However, of all of the U.S. highways, this is the only one that is not completely contiguous without taking a ferry. If you were to be driving east along Highway 10, when you got to Mantowoc, Wisconsin, you have to take a ferry to stay on U.S. 10. You go across Lake Michigan and it ends up in Ludington, Michigan. So that means U.S. 10 goes from a road to a marina, then you cross the lake and it ends up at the marina again and goes on. There's an official U.S. Highway 10 ship called the S.S. Badger and there's even a U.S. Highway 10 sign on the ship. It's a 4 hour ride across the lake which is much faster than I would have thought. And it takes 2 hours longer to do the drive plus any possible traffic in the Chicago metro area. So if you're taking a truck east to west, not having to go through Chicago, take the ferry. But U.S. Highway 10 is not the only one in the country where a ferry system is part of the highway. In North Carolina, in the Outer Banks, State Highways 12 and 45 include a ferry. The Outer Banks are those long skinny barrier islands out in the ocean and there is a road that goes down the Outer Banks. And this is State Highway 12 that goes down the Outer Banks but sometimes it has to cross over an island but there are no bridges there so the State Highway becomes a ferry. And Highway 12 actually has two ferry sections, one from Hatteras to Cedar Island and one from Cedar Island to Ocracoke. And once Highway 12 reaches the mainland in North Carolina, it ends right there. But also in North Carolina, State Highway 45 is a ferry route. This one goes from the town of Swan Quarter to Ocracoke Island and this is also where the Highway 12 ferry goes. So the intersection of State Highways 12 and 45 is the harbor. Another state that uses ferries as part of its state highway system is Washington. And these are almost all in the Puget Sound area in the kind of Seattle greater metro area. State Highways 304 and 305 are ferries that leave from Seattle, one to Bremerton, one to Bainbridge. And there are several others in the state that use ferries as part of its highway including Highway 160 to Vashon Island, Highway 104, Kingston-Woodway Highway, and Highway 20, Keyston to Port Townsend. However, there isn't much uniformity with these routes. Some of these routes end at the marina, some of them continue on as a state highway as a regular road. And it's also interesting that some of these ferry routes don't have a state highway designation. There are plenty of other ferries that aren't numbered like ones to Southworth or Ruston. But either way, if you want to stay on some of these state highways to get to the area across the Sound, well you got to get on a boat. Another strange state highway is Michigan State Highway 185 or M185. This is a road that goes around the perimeter of Mackinac Island which is that island kind of right where the upper and lower peninsula meets. Cars have never been allowed on the island except for emergency vehicles and work trucks. Okay, so then what is Highway 185 then? Well it's basically just a pedestrian and bike trail around the island. It goes right through the heart of the little downtown of the village, really cute little historic area. And then you can walk or bike on M85 around this island. But it's a more rugged island as you might think, so buy some fuzz before you go to get some energy. There are 500 permanent residents that live on the island. It's mostly a tourist destination in the summer. I'm not really sure why this got the highway designation 185 if it's just meant to be quaint or if there's some other reason for it. But either way, Highway 185 was just a pedestrian and bike trail on Mackinac Island. Now I'm going to go to California that has a couple of funky numbered highways in the Sierra Nevada. I'm talking specifically about the east-west routes 168 and 190. Both of these are non-contiguous highways that start to make their way up the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and then give up. And then they both miraculously return on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. So Highway 168 comes out of Fresno, goes up the foothills, and it ends at the beautiful Huntington Lake in the Sierra. And then it just dies. But the John Muir Trail starts and then somehow, someway, it reconvenes at Lake Sabrina. And if you're heading west along Highway 168, you're going up, it ends at the parking lot for the trailhead there. Highway 190 is very similar, heads out of the San Joaquin Valley into the giant Sequoia National Monument. However, it just ends at the little village of Quaking Aspen and turns into Forest Roads. And check out Google's dedication to Street View. Imagine being the driver and getting this assignment. And then on the east side, it's kind of strange, it ends at Highway 395, doesn't even go up the slopes of the eastern Sierra. So yeah, in California, if you want to cross the Sierra on Highways 168 and 190, get out of your car and walk it your damn self. Next, I'm going to Texas and Louisiana and the oldest European settlement in the states. A few months ago, I was doing an online quiz where I had to guess the oldest founded town in each state. So for Texas, I guessed San Antonio, founded by the Spanish. And for Louisiana, I guessed New Orleans founded by the French. However, I was wrong for both because the oldest town in each are Nacogdoches and Natchitoches. Yeah, these towns are each the oldest town in their respective states. I've always been curious about these towns, how they're relatively close to each other and have pretty similar sounding names. Natchitoches, Louisiana is named after the Natchitoches people. However, Natchitoches, Texas is a Caddo indigenous term. I've always assumed there had to be some kind of connection between these two towns and there is. Natchitoches, Louisiana was founded by Acadian French in 1714 before either New Orleans or Baton Rouge. Today, the town has a population of about 18,000 people. It's the home to Northwestern State University and it's a pretty popular town for retirees in the region. Natchitoches, Texas was founded two years later by the Spanish when they erected a mission there. And back in those days, the Spanish and French were fighting over territory trying to gain ground in North America. However, the Spanish gave up on Natchitoches and moved the main mission to San Antonio in 1772. And then in 1779, Spanish settlers moved back to Natchitoches but formed a secular town. And today, Natchitoches has about 32,000 people. It's home to Stephen F. Austin State University and it's probably the nicest small town in East Texas. So yeah, Natchitoches and Natchitoches, the oldest town in their respective states, founded two years apart from each other, one by the French, one by the Spanish. So that was part six of oddities and interesting facts. And like I was saying at the beginning, there's some deep cuts in this one. So if there's going to be a part seven, there'll be some more deep cuts and some obscure and subtle oddities. But if you enjoyed this video, please give me a thumbs up to let me know you approve and subscribe to this channel if you're interested in learning more about geography from a nerd like me. But yeah, thanks for watching. Geography King, signing out. I'd like to give a special thanks to my superior patrons for their support. If you're interested in supporting the channel, you can check out my Patreon page. The link is in the description. As always, thank you very much.