Kentucky Bend: Die seltsamste Grenze in Amerika
Von vladgrinch
Kentucky Bend: Die seltsamste Grenze in Amerika
Von vladgrinch
48 Kommentare
To drive to this part of Kentucky, you have to go through Tennessee. There is no direct road connection to the rest of Kentucky.
The Kentucky Bend exists because the Mississippi River shifted course around a massive river meander after the border had already been defined. The situation became even stranger after the huge New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–1812, which dramatically altered parts of the river system in the region.
Case of one border being defined by latitude and one being defined by a river.
It apparently has a total population of 9 as of 2020
The Northwest Angle would like a word
Did Kentucky and Tennessee give consent to this Missouri penetration?
Check out [Point Roberts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Roberts,_Washington), a peninsula in America only accessible by land through Canada.
In like ten years, it will be a island
You guys don’t know about that part of Washington State only accessible through Canada, I imagine
Obviously state boundaries followed the River at the time they became states, not as they appear now.
Who if any, polices this area?
Welcome to the traveling Mississippi, Missouri, and oxbow lakes.
This section doesn’t even matter because it’s just some fields. The section of Iowa (Carter Lake) in Nebraska (Omaha) actually matters because it has tons of houses and industry and is the major connection to the Airport.
Been there twice. There is a Kentucky historical marker there noting background of the area. Desolate, flat, and eerie.
Angle Inlet, MN would like a word with you.
I live very close to a similar situation in New Jersey. We are right on the NY border and there is a small cul de sac that has 5 houses on one side of the road in NY, and the houses on the other side are in NJ. Only accessible thru NJ.
Point Roberts in Washington wins weirdest border. It’s only attached to Canada, far from the US, and doesn’t even have a ferry service.
There’s a couple of these along the Mississippi River. I went to a farm that was technically in TN, but we had to cross over into Arkansas to actually reach it
Wouldn’t this also technically be reachable by boat by either Tennessee or Missouri waterways?
Well you know, “we gotta save some for those guys over there..”
Point Roberts only reachable by road from British Columbia, not from Washington State.
Wow TIL part of Kentucky is an enclave.
Look up Kaskaskia, IL. River moved, but the boarder remained the same. The big New Madrid fault quake in the late 1800s did quite a number on things down there.
Delaware Wedge has entered the chat
Is there a historical precedent of what happens if the Mississippi oxbows this part of Kentucky? Would the state cede this part of land, at least administratively, to Missouri?
It’s weird how people think it’s weird that you had to cross a border to go to a grocery store that logic makes no sense
This area was scene of a major earthquake event during a time (1811-1812) in which it was scarcely populated. Eyewitness account said the Mississippi ran backwards for a time from the shocks. ‚General ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides, and soil liquefication‘ were some effects that sound pretty terrifying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%931812_New_Madrid_earthquakes
Just to the southeast of this mapped area is Reelfoot Lake, which was formed from the topographical effects of the New Madrid earthquake.
Michigan is a whole state that consists of two peninsulas connected by a bridge. The bridge gives them a land connection, but i think having an entire state like that sets the bar well above this.
Why is there a New Madrid in Missouri, which was never controlled by Spain?
It’s called an „exclave“, as stated in the legend, which is nothing special, at least not special enough for r/MapPorn.
What is „special“ in another way however is that someone decided to create a map of states and give them a unique color (ok), then somehow decided to give the river a separate color (weird and not ok, since they also belong to one of the states, most likely divided somewhere in the middle), and then, for some reason, decided to also place polygons of cities on top of that (definitely not ok), and then label the states in the map as well as in the legend (psychopath design) and then, after all of that, added the ACTUAL BORDER between the states, which obviously goes through the river, and decided that the color of kentucky would be the best fit for the entire line.
This really is a one of the worst maps I have ever seen, only topped by some kind of speech bubble, which apparently points out that the in the middle of the river between the exclave and Missouri can only be reached by a road through tennessee. But hey, at least it got an absolutely useless and comically oversized north arrow. Technically, the legend is not only bad it’s also plain wrong, as the yellow area to the right is „Kentucky“, and not „Kentucky (exclave)“
What a great submission to r/MapPorn
There’s literally [nothing](https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+Madrid,+MO/@36.5296724,-89.5103057,3a,75y,269.91h,88.74t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s8zLzjD2TJR3UojCzdbb3SQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D1.2551752206727969%26panoid%3D8zLzjD2TJR3UojCzdbb3SQ%26yaw%3D269.90899688421626!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x8878f78a552aaeff:0x96db7c0d3227b42c!8m2!3d36.5864488!4d-89.5278547!16zL20vMHd5OTY!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDUyMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D) there though.
Secede, free West Kentucky!
One of the strangest. At least you can drive to it from another US state. Minnesota and Washington would like a word.
Me when I forget boats exist
it’s still attached by a mile wide strip of land.
This reminds me of one I don’t see mentioned much, which is the Lost Peninsula of Michigan and Ohio (near Toledo). It’s a small piece of Michigan that’s disconnected from the rest of the state and the only road access is through Ohio.
I never cease to find it fascinating that there is no bridge over the Mississippi directly connecting Kentucky and Missouri along their entire border stretch. They’re the only border states you can’t drive between directly (excluding those water borders in the middle of Great Lakes). You have to go into Illinois or Tennessee or take a ferry if you want to get from one to the other.
This where people usually reply about how pointless and expensive a bridge would be given the population of the area. Yes. True. But society occasionally does things just to do them and this is one I’m amazed didn’t happen just because at some point. There’s some alternate post-WWII infrastructure boom America where they built a bridge somewhere along there just because.
I’ve lived in Mo my entire life and just realized a few years ago KY and MO share a border.
It isn’t ken-nected
mattered a lot during the civil war
I mean as it “is” Kentucky I’m pretty sure it’s connected to Kentucky. Might not be connected to the rest of Kentucky but it’s still Kentucky
Turn it upside down and it looks like dick and balls.
They should trade it to Tennessee for the parts of Tennessee that can only be reached in Kentucky
Apparently, it’s a Tentucky.
Meandering rivers change the geography over decades.
It’s because of flooding and using the river as a border
We (Kentucky) are taking over the rest of the US a few acres at a time. One day you look out your window and BOOM, Kentucky. If you see a thoroughbred drinking bourbon and dribbling a basketball, it’s already too late.
Suspiciously hemorrhoidal.
Carter Lake in Omaha is kind of the same thing a completely self-contained piece of Iowa stuck in Nebraska. Missouri river changed course at some point and created it.