This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[US 89]

The Mormons tried to come to the rescue by building a mall near Temple Square a few years back.  Not sure if the mall has been successful or is still being propped up.

If it's the mall I'm thinking of, it's really more of a "town center" concept and seems like the stores contained within are too upscale for it to be successful.

That’s the City Creek Mall, which they built in the two blocks south of Temple Square after tearing down the old Crossroads and ZCMI malls. The stores in City Creek are more upscale, but the mall has definitely been a success, and has helped make downtown a better place overall. In fact, the opening of City Creek was the biggest reason for the decline of the Gateway mall. About the only drawback for City Creek is that, since it’s owned by the Mormon Church, it’s closed on Sunday.

[Rothman]

Like I said -- and as a Mormon myself -- the question for me is it the mall has been a true profitable success, or if the Church is continuing to subsidize the development to keep Downtown from economic erosion.

[thenetwork]

Like I said -- and as a Mormon myself -- the question for me is it the mall has been a true profitable success, or if the Church is continuing to subsidize the development to keep Downtown from economic erosion.

My wife and I visited downtown SLC last summer.  Downtown seemed strong with the mall, the Temple area, the Capitol at the top of the hill, and the Vivint Arena to the west.  We went on a Saturday, so I don't know how busy the downtown area is during the other 6 days, but it seems like the Mormon Church is a worldwide pilgrimage for their followers.

And it's not like the mall is strictly a "mall" as there are business offices and apartments on the upper floors of many of the buildings which comprise of the mall, no?

[Rothman]

The draw of Temple Square and associated Church sites (Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Church History Museum, Family History Library, etc.) is still something of a constant, since it was there prior to the failure of the ZCMI mall and the obvious decline of the surrounding downtown area.  There's little question the Church's investment has been beneficial.  The question is exactly how the new shiny facade is upkept now.

[kalvado]

Canada's solution was to assign a unique postal code for Santa's mail: H0H 0H0.  I believe that ends up somewhere in the Toronto area if you follow Canada's postal code region scheme.

Montréal, actually.

The first H designates metro Montréal.

A zero in the second position of any forward sortation area prefix indicates a rural area (although there are exceptions)...and metro Montréal doesn't have any rural areas.

The second H has no particular meaning, aside from having been chosen for the obvious reason. 

Wiki has a bit more details:

H is used to designate Montreal, the second-largest city in Canada. As such, the H0- prefix is almost completely empty. H0M, assigned to the international Akwesasne tribal reserve on the Canada-US border, is the only other H0- postal code in active use.

[empirestate]

Here's one: Cape Cod is a cape.

Don't know why that defies conventional wisdom, exactly, but for some reason there's an idea going around that "Cape Cod" is a misnomer, and that it's actually a peninsula rather than a cape. I guess there's a misconception that capes are always high, rocky headlands or promontories (like Cape Ann or Cape of Good Hope), but the word is just as often applied to flat, sandy protrusions of land, like Cape Cod or Cape Canaveral.

(It is also a peninsula, of course, being surrounded on three sides by water; some capes are more two-sided and so wouldn't be described as peninsulas.)

[tckma]

Here's one: Cape Cod is a cape.

Don't know why that defies conventional wisdom, exactly, but for some reason there's an idea going around that "Cape Cod" is a misnomer, and that it's actually a peninsula rather than a cape. I guess there's a misconception that capes are always high, rocky headlands or promontories (like Cape Ann or Cape of Good Hope), but the word is just as often applied to flat, sandy protrusions of land, like Cape Cod or Cape Canaveral.

(It is also a peninsula, of course, being surrounded on three sides by water; some capes are more two-sided and so wouldn't be described as peninsulas.)

Until June 2000 (when I moved to Massachusetts), I thought Cape Cod was a town, and I was just too blind to find it on a map.

[kalvado]

Here's one: Cape Cod is a cape.

Don't know why that defies conventional wisdom, exactly, but for some reason there's an idea going around that "Cape Cod" is a misnomer, and that it's actually a peninsula rather than a cape. I guess there's a misconception that capes are always high, rocky headlands or promontories (like Cape Ann or Cape of Good Hope), but the word is just as often applied to flat, sandy protrusions of land, like Cape Cod or Cape Canaveral.

(It is also a peninsula, of course, being surrounded on three sides by water; some capes are more two-sided and so wouldn't be described as peninsulas.)

Meanwhile, Capetown in South Africa is located on Cape Peninsular.
And I have hard time describing Cape Cod as surrounded on three sides by water, more like water is on 4 or 5 sides of that... thing...

[Roadgeekteen]

Here's one: Cape Cod is a cape.

Don't know why that defies conventional wisdom, exactly, but for some reason there's an idea going around that "Cape Cod" is a misnomer, and that it's actually a peninsula rather than a cape. I guess there's a misconception that capes are always high, rocky headlands or promontories (like Cape Ann or Cape of Good Hope), but the word is just as often applied to flat, sandy protrusions of land, like Cape Cod or Cape Canaveral.

(It is also a peninsula, of course, being surrounded on three sides by water; some capes are more two-sided and so wouldn't be described as peninsulas.)

I have never heard someone call Cape Cod a peninsula.

[Hurricane Rex]

Here's one: Cape Cod is a cape.

Don't know why that defies conventional wisdom, exactly, but for some reason there's an idea going around that "Cape Cod" is a misnomer, and that it's actually a peninsula rather than a cape. I guess there's a misconception that capes are always high, rocky headlands or promontories (like Cape Ann or Cape of Good Hope), but the word is just as often applied to flat, sandy protrusions of land, like Cape Cod or Cape Canaveral.

(It is also a peninsula, of course, being surrounded on three sides by water; some capes are more two-sided and so wouldn't be described as peninsulas.)

I have never heard someone call Cape Cod a peninsula.

Calling cape cod a peninsula got me a wrong answer in the geography bee.

[empirestate]

Here's one: Cape Cod is a cape.

Don't know why that defies conventional wisdom, exactly, but for some reason there's an idea going around that "Cape Cod" is a misnomer, and that it's actually a peninsula rather than a cape. I guess there's a misconception that capes are always high, rocky headlands or promontories (like Cape Ann or Cape of Good Hope), but the word is just as often applied to flat, sandy protrusions of land, like Cape Cod or Cape Canaveral.

(It is also a peninsula, of course, being surrounded on three sides by water; some capes are more two-sided and so wouldn't be described as peninsulas.)

I have never heard someone call Cape Cod a peninsula.

Calling cape cod a peninsula got me a wrong answer in the geography bee.

What was the correct answer?

[SignGeek101]

Canada's southernmost land border (i.e. Middle Island on Lake Erie) is farther south than Rome, downtown Chicago, and the California-Oregon border.

EDIT: Added bold to clarify

[GaryV]

Canada's southernmost land border is farther south than Rome, downtown Chicago, and the California-Oregon border.

I don't think you are saying what you mean to say there, since Canada's only land borders are with Alaska, Washington to Minnesota, and New York to Maine.

Canada's southernmost mainland, Point Pelee, is farther south than the California-Oregon border, and about equal with Rome.  It's about a tenth of a degree north of downtown Chicago.  If you include Pelee Island and the smaller Middle Island in Lake Erie, then your claims are true.

[empirestate]

Canada's southernmost land border is farther south than Rome, downtown Chicago, and the California-Oregon border.

I don't think you are saying what you mean to say there, since Canada's only land borders are with Alaska, Washington to Minnesota, and New York to Maine.

Canada's southernmost mainland, Point Pelee, is farther south than the California-Oregon border, and about equal with Rome.  It's about a tenth of a degree north of downtown Chicago.  If you include Pelee Island and the smaller Middle Island in Lake Erie, then your claims are true.

Yes, and it seems the southernmost border–land or otherwise–also holds true. In this case, it's a maritime border in Lake Erie.

(Speaking of Lake Erie, a rough glance suggests that its western end is closer to Chicago than to Buffalo.)

[SignGeek101]

Canada's southernmost land border is farther south than Rome, downtown Chicago, and the California-Oregon border.

I don't think you are saying what you mean to say there, since Canada's only land borders are with Alaska, Washington to Minnesota, and New York to Maine.

Canada's southernmost mainland, Point Pelee, is farther south than the California-Oregon border, and about equal with Rome.  It's about a tenth of a degree north of downtown Chicago.  If you include Pelee Island and the smaller Middle Island in Lake Erie, then your claims are true.

I meant Middle Island. I should have clarified that in my original post. By "land border" I meant Middle Island, and not the mainland. I didn't think about that in my original post. I just didn't want people to think that I meant the "actual southern border" which, of course is in Lake Erie, and not on any land.

[CtrlAltDel]

Does the border go through Middle Island? It doesn't seem to on Google Maps, but sometimes I've noticed that the borders are a little off? Or did you mean southernmost point of land?

[oscar]

Does the border go through Middle Island? It doesn't seem to on Google Maps, but sometimes I've noticed that the borders are a little off? Or did you mean southernmost point of land?

He must've meant the latter. His reference to "land border" was confusing, since the only border near Middle Island is a water border.

Middle Island is an uninhabited nature preserve, off-limits to visitors. Pelee Island residents told me that local boaters approaching the island are intercepted by the authorities and ordered to turn away. So visitors have to settle for the southern tip of Pelee Island (which I visited) as the southernmost land in Canada open to the general public.

[inkyatari]

I may have posted this, but I know that the town of Kaskaskia, IL is on the western side of the Mississippi river from the rest of Illinois.  What I didn't know is that there's a small portion of IL by Cairo that's south of the Mississippi river from the rest of IL.  In looking at the border, it's obvious that this bit of Illinois is not on the opposite side of the river because of changes in the river's course, as the border is a straight line.  Anybody know what's up with this bit of Illinois?

[mrsman]

I may have posted this, but I know that the town of Kaskaskia, IL is on the western side of the Mississippi river from the rest of Illinois.  What I didn't know is that there's a small portion of IL by Cairo that's south of the Mississippi river from the rest of IL.  In looking at the border, it's obvious that this bit of Illinois is not on the opposite side of the river because of changes in the river's course, as the border is a straight line.  Anybody know what's up with this bit of Illinois?

Official state boundaries defined as being the river where they ran 100-200 years ago.  But rivers do change their course over time, but the state boundary is fixed.

[US 89]

I may have posted this, but I know that the town of Kaskaskia, IL is on the western side of the Mississippi river from the rest of Illinois.  What I didn't know is that there's a small portion of IL by Cairo that's south of the Mississippi river from the rest of IL.  In looking at the border, it's obvious that this bit of Illinois is not on the opposite side of the river because of changes in the river's course, as the border is a straight line.  Anybody know what's up with this bit of Illinois?

Official state boundaries defined as being the river where they ran 100-200 years ago.  But rivers do change their course over time, but the state boundary is fixed.

Except the state border that Inkyatari is referring to probably wasn't ever part of the river's course. It's northwest of Cairo, just south of Cache IL.

[inkyatari]

I may have posted this, but I know that the town of Kaskaskia, IL is on the western side of the Mississippi river from the rest of Illinois.  What I didn't know is that there's a small portion of IL by Cairo that's south of the Mississippi river from the rest of IL.  In looking at the border, it's obvious that this bit of Illinois is not on the opposite side of the river because of changes in the river's course, as the border is a straight line.  Anybody know what's up with this bit of Illinois?

Official state boundaries defined as being the river where they ran 100-200 years ago.  But rivers do change their course over time, but the state boundary is fixed.

Except the state border that Inkyatari is referring to probably wasn't ever part of the river's course. It's northwest of Cairo, just south of Cache IL.

Exactly.  This particular border doesn't appear to be on a former course of the Mississippi.  It is indeed a straight-er line. To wit:

https://goo.gl/maps/tPcm975L8qG2

[MikeTheActuary]

I may have posted this, but I know that the town of Kaskaskia, IL is on the western side of the Mississippi river from the rest of Illinois.  What I didn't know is that there's a small portion of IL by Cairo that's south of the Mississippi river from the rest of IL.  In looking at the border, it's obvious that this bit of Illinois is not on the opposite side of the river because of changes in the river's course, as the border is a straight line.  Anybody know what's up with this bit of Illinois?

Official state boundaries defined as being the river where they ran 100-200 years ago.  But rivers do change their course over time, but the state boundary is fixed.

Except the state border that Inkyatari is referring to probably wasn't ever part of the river's course. It's northwest of Cairo, just south of Cache IL.

I don't have an explanation for the straightness of the border line, but the oxymoronic name of that patch of land is Missouri Sister Island.

https://www.semissourian.com/blogs/pavementends/entry/36305

[dvferyance]

Cario IL is closer to Texas than it is to Wisconsin.

[inkyatari]

Cario IL is closer to Texas than it is to Wisconsin.

That is interesting

[Road Hog]

Cario IL is closer to Texas than it is to Wisconsin.

That is interesting

Guessing it's closer to Louisiana too as the crow flies.

ADD: It'll be a lot closer to Texas if MODOT would get off its duff.