Colorado: 64 Counties in 45 Years

On Saturday, May 1, 2009 I entered San Miguel County from Delores County, Colorado, thus completing my visits to each of the 64 counties in the Rocky Mountain State. I was traveling with my older brother, Philip, who recently retired as president of Western Oregon University. It was our first time to travel together since we were teenagers, growing up in East Tennessee.

Philip joined me for a week long trip across southern Colorado where we visited my; final seven Colorado counties. We were traveling north on CO-145, the San Juan Skyway, heading toward Teluride, an old mining town which is now a trendy vacation spot, especially popular with snow skiers.

The first time I entered Colorado had been in the summer of 1964. I was 19-years-old then, having just finished my freshman year of college. I was traveling from Dillon, Montana, where I had spent the summer, en route to Dallas, Texas for a church convention, and then back home to Tennessee.

I've been in Colorado about 20 times over the years, for a variety of reasons, including visiting my son, Christopher, who lives in Denver. This trip illustrates why county counting is so fascinating. Although I had been in Colorado numerous times over a span of almost half a century, there are several hidden corners of the state I would have missed if it were not for this obsession I have to collect every county.

On the trip we visited three national parks: Great Sand Dunes, Grand Canyon of the Gunnison, and Mesa Verde. I had been to the Grand Canyon of the Gunnison once before, and had visited Montezuma County - home of Mesa Verde - way back in 1967, but did not make it to that National Park until this trip.

As is often the case, my favorite counties on this trip were those remote spots which are seldom visited by the average tourist. These included Hinsdale County, with a population of only 790, and Custer County, where we enjoyed spectacular views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and had an impromptu meeting with the honorable Allen Butler, the mayor of Silver Cliff, Colorado.

Finishing Arizona in La Paz County

This dramatic view is the first glimpse I had of La Paz County, Arizona, March 28, 2009. It was my final Arizona county, and the 2,916th county overall, in my quest to visit each of the 3,142 counties or their equivilents in the United States. The view is from Mohave County, looking across Bill Williams River into La Paz County, along Arizona Highway 95, near Parker Dam.

La Paz County is one of the newest counties in the United States. It was established in 1983, being formed from the northern half of Yuma County. La Paz is the first and only new county created in Arizona since the territory gained statehood in 1912. Soon after the formation of La Paz County, Arizona laws were changed to make splitting other existing counties much more difficult.

I had first visited Yuna County way back in 1968, while living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but I had not been in the part of the county that broke off to be come La Paz. The county is named for an old settlement - now a ghost town - along the Colorado River. Parker, Arizona, just across the Colorado River from California, is the county seat.

Counting Counties in Southern Illinois

Grand Rose Hotel, Elizabethtown, Illinois

This past weekend my wife and I made a three day trip to southern Illinois, picking up five new counties: Gallatin, Hardin, Pope, Saline and Hamilton. That brought my total number of Illinois counties visited to 101 of 102. I hope to pick up my final Illinois county later this year when I take a road trip to Missouri.

It was not the best time of year to visit Illinois. The area had just suffered a severe ice storm a couple of days before. Highways still had many patches of ice and snow, especially over the rural bridges, and much of the area was without electric power. Also, a couple of roads we wanted to take had been detoured because of flooding. A friend of mine who lives in Illinois had advised me that the best time to visit southern Illinois is in the summer when he said it is beautiful. But someone who is intent on visiting every county in the United States can't always wait for good weather. If I traveled only at the peak season for each county I would never complete the quest.

Garden of the Gods, Shawnee National Forest, Illinois

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It is certainly possible to visit more than five counties in a weekend, but I've decided that's enough if a person wants to actually see something of those counties and not just go on a driving marathon. At five counties a weekend, 52 weeks a year, it would take more than 623 weeks, or a little longer than 12 years, to visit every county in the United States. This could be very easily done for the first many weeks. However, the more counties a person visits the further he must travel to reach new territory, so each trip becomes subsequently more difficult, more time consuming, and more expensive. If a person must be obsessed to stick to such a venture then surely I am obsessed. I find it to be a magnificent obsession - full of fun, adventure, and fascinating learning experiences.

Also, I should add that over the past several years I have averaged visiting just over 100 new counties per year - which comes out a little more than two coutnies per week. I hope to complete my quest in about four more years.

Our favorite experience of this past weekend was staying in the Grand Rose Hotel in Elizabethtown. This old riverboat era hotel the Ohio River was established in 1812, making it the oldest hotel in the state. It was amazing to learn that Elizabethtown, with a current population of 350, was once larger than the city of Chicago. Other things we saw included Cave-in-Rock State Park, a place where river pirates once hid out from the law, and Garden of the Gods - very picturesque rock formations - in the Shawnee National Forest. These are remnants of an ancient mountain range called the Shawnee Hills. In Pope County we discovered a sobering monument to the Trail of Tears, memorializing thousands of Cherokees who traveled this way - hundreds of them dying in Illinois - during their forced trek westward. Several other interesting sights of human and natural history, such as the Cave-in-Rock ferry and the oldest Baptist church in Illinois, made me very happy that I visited this off-the-beaten-path corner of Illinois. We found it to be a fascinating part of our great land that we would have never seen if it were not for counting counties.

Need Maps? Try These Links.

Every County Collector has his/her own way of recording the counties they have visited. I began by using a large county outline map of the entire United States, bought at The Map Store in Knoxville, Tennessee. However, after years of rolling and unrolling, marking, and coloring with felt tip pens, it disintegrated. I got another large map and had it laminated. I still use that map, although it is sometimes a bit unwieldy to carry on trips.

My favorite way of mapping my county travels is by using individual state county outline maps such as that of Missouri, pictured above. I not only color in the county, but also jot in the date of my first visit. Such maps can be found on the internet. One good source is the U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/maps/stco_02.htm. The University of Texas offers the same maps but in a slightly different format: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/county_outline.html.

A very attractive set of county outline maps may be found at this site – although it may take a bit of searching to locate them: http://nationalatlas.gov/printable.html.

My wife and I actually have three sets of state maps in different three ring binders. They are labeled: Stephen's Counties, Karen's Counties, and Our Counties - our counties being those we have visited together.

We also record our travels at a couple of online county sites, the largest being Marty O'Brien's site: http://www.mob-rule.com/counties/. Carey Jensen also has a nice site where you can record your counties online: http://counties.visitedmap.com/.

Amazing Adventures in Podunk, U.S.A.

Teapot Water Tower, Lindstrom, Minnesota

I have recently returned from a 9 day road trip to meet my wife Karen in Minneapolis for a romantic weekend. She flew to Minnesota on business. Since I am recently retired and have more time than Karen, I drove out to meet her.

Minneapolis is 714 miles from Loveland, so I should have been able to go there and back in well under 1,500 miles, with about 11 hours driving time in each direction. As a truly dedicated county collector, I added five days to the trip and more than doubled the miles necessary. The 3,092 miles I drove took me through parts of 8 states, where I collecting a total of 52 new counties in Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota.

It’s amazing what you can find in small town America – and in a part of the country that some people think is nothing but corn fields. Here are just a few of the discoveries I made:

*The National Hobo Museum and Home of the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa.

*The World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Darwin, Minnesota. I’ve also seen the “World’s Largest Ball of Twine” in Cawker, Kansas, but for anything this important there’s got to be at least two of them.

*The “World’s Largest Truck Stop” and Trucking Hall of Fame, Iowa 80, 10 miles west of Davenport.

*A teapot shaped water tower in Lindstrom, Minnesota, “America’s Little Sweden.”

*Lots for sale at only $1.00 each in a declining area of North Dakota, to attract new residents.

*An authentic Dutch windmill, Dutch architecture, and a "Tulip Festival" in Orange City, Iowa.*“Ice Cream Capitol of the World" in Le Mars, Iowa.

*Birthplace of the 4-H Club cloverleaf emblem in Clarion, Iowa.

Also I stayed in an authentic old log cabin in the Minnesota North Woods, built as part of a tourist court before the days of modern motels. I savored “world famous” chicken and dumpling soup – a Minnesota regional favorite, kissed a Blarney Stone from Ireland in Emmetsburg, Iowa, and MUCH, MUCH more.

Rural America is just brimming with delightful surprises for those who take time to discover them.

Seeing ALL of America

I must concede that my ultimate travel fantasy would be to visit every country on earth, and I have been privileged to travel to about 45 of them. However, to get to every spot on this planet is simply beyond the means and ability of most everyone - including myself.

If I can't see the whole world, I decided long ago that at least I would see as much of my own country as possible. In one lifetime it would be impossible to see every nook and cranny of this great land: tour every city, town and hamlet, climb every hill and mountain, float every stream, stroll through every park, follow every highway, country road and wilderness trail. There just aren't enough days in a lifetime to do it all. So I've compromised by setting out to at least visit each of the 3,141 counties in our great land. In so doing I will be able to say I know my country well, and I will have experienced more of it than most people ever do.

My decision to visit every county was inspired, at least in part, by a chance meeting with a businessman from Malaysia who happened to sit beside me on a flight between Honolulu and Hong Kong. I was on my way to Manila, Philippines, and he was returning home from six weeks in America. I asked him, "How much of our country did you see?"

"Oh," he replied with a confident air, "I saw all of it!"

That was amazing. I have lived in the United States not for 6 weeks but for more than 60 years, have traveled much, and do not consider that I have seen nearly all of this vast and varied land. I questioned the Malaysian brother, "All of it? Exactly what do you consider all of America to be?"

"I spent a week each in New York, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle," he smiled. "From coast-to- coast, from top-to-bottom and in the middle - I saw all of America."

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"Did you ever get outside of the inner cities?"

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"Oh yes, I saw the rural areas too. I took a bus from Vancouver to Seattle so I could see the countryside."

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I was stunned. In my opinion the six cities he had visited are an extremely limited introduction to this great country, especially if one stays in a downtown hotel and doesn't venture outside the city center, as he admitted he had done except for one short bus ride. My Malaysian friend is to be commended for seeing as much of America as he did. He has experienced much more of my country than I have of his. However, he had barely sampled a limited urban America which is almost as foreign to many who live in this country as are London, Moscow or Hong Kong.

I wish every visitor to America could see not only our great cities, but our mid-sized cities as well, and also our small towns, rural villages, farms, forests, fields, national and state parks, and untamed wilderness areas.

I love the United States of America. I love her for one simple reason; America is my home. I was born and reared here, as were my parents, my grand parents, and several generations before. As is true with the vast majority of people who call this American melting pot home, my ancestors came from many places: Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, England and perhaps other countries unknown. And at least some of my forebears were native Cherokee Indians. I think of myself as an All-American hybrid.

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As an All-American hybrid I am determined that in my lifetime I will see All of America - or die trying.

Collecting Counties: Hereditary or Acquired?

Counting Counties with Karen in Arizona

Although I was 50 years old before I started keeping a list of the counties I had visited, I wonder if the kink that makes me want to count counties might be hereditary.

My parents were not county counters, but both of them traveled extensively and kept a record of all the states and foreign countries they had been to - all 50 states and more than 60 countries.

Dad did have a younger sister, Fay, who is a county counter. I had been keeping a record of my own counties visited for a few years when I stopped in to see Aunt Fay at her home in Georgia. When I told her of my hobby, I was both surprised and pleased to learn that she had been counting counties for much longer than me.

Aunt Fay has lived on the same street all of her 77 years, and has never owned an automobile or even had a drivers license. Because of these limitations, she never aspired to visit every county in the United States. Her world didn't extend much past the State of Georgia. Still, as a young woman, she set out to visit each one of the 159 counties in that state - and did it.

Georgia is the largest state in land area east of the Mississippi River, and also has much smaller counties than many other states. For that reason, Georgia has more counties than any state in the union except for Texas. Collecting those counties is a daunting task for anyone. Aunt Fay did it by traveling via train, bus, or hitching a ride with family and friends. I wonder if anyone else has ever visited every county in Georgia without driving. She has my utmost admiration.

Even though it took me five decades of life to begin counting counties, I have collected similar travel goals since I was a kid. When I was only seven or eight years old I loved climbing trees so much that I decided I would climb every tree in the world. Of course my world was very small at that time. I climbed the dozen or so trees in our yard in Cleveland, Tennessee, and upon completion of each tree nailed the cap off of a soda bottle into the base of the tree to indicate that I had climbed it. Soon I had nailed bottle caps to every tree in our neighborhood, and also on many of the trees in Harrison Bay State Park, where Mom and Dad often took our family for picnics. I even climbed trees and nailed bottle caps in the woods near my Grandmother's house in Georgia.

Needless to say, I gave up on that pursuit at about the same time I quit believing in Santa Claus. There are just too many trees. Also, old trees die and new ones keep sprouting all the time. Later I have "collected" other geographically related things such as states, state high points, foreign countries, national park sites, hiking trails and more.

Maybe I collect travel experiences and keep a record of them because doing such runs in my family. Other people seem to come about county counting by catching it from someone else. My wife, Karen, is a good example. Shortly after we were married, just five years ago, she made a list of all the counties she had visited and came up with a little more than 200. Today her list is more than 900 and growing rapidly. Karen eagerly records her counties visited on every trip we make, and before one journey has ended she is already planning the next. Did she catch the bug from me? Maybe. But really I think Karen had the traits of a county counter all along - just waiting for the right spark to awaken it within her.

Not everyone has the right stuff to be a county counter. It's not a goal for a single vacation - or even a year of traveling. To follow the dream of visiting every county in the United States to completion usually takes decades of consecrated effort. In fact, if the pursuit of visiting every county doesn't consume you, you'll never make it.

When I talk of counting counties some people respond with yawns or glazed expressions and quickly change the subject to something in which they are interested. I've had a few even rebuff me for counting counties, saying it is silly, or a worthless pursuit. I've decided that these folks don't have the same gene mix as me. They just don't get it, and they never will.

It seems to me that the thing which motivates a person to count counties is both hereditary and something you catch. First, you've got to have the makings of a county counter inside you: curiosity, the love for travel and adventure, and be a compulsive goal setter and list maker. If you've got these characteristics it still doesn't make you a county counter. Now you need a catalyst. It may be an article you read, a conversation with a friend, or some other spark that ignites your vision.

If you've got what it takes to be a county counter, you know it. If not, you probably haven't read this far.

The Counting Begins

There are 3,141 counties (or their equivalents) in the United States of America, and there are a relative handful of obsessed people who are hell-bent on visiting every one of them at least once in their lifetimes. I'm one of those people - a County Counter.

I began collecting states as a child, traveling across the country with my Dad and brothers. But it was not until 1995, at the age of 50, that I consciously began counting counties. I had taken a vacation to New England, and on that trip fulfilled a lifetime dream by visiting my 49th and 50th states, New Hampshire and Maine. After spending a couple of days exploring a few spots in New Hampshire (Mt. Washington, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, etc.) It was time to travel on to Maine. I felt it somehow appropriate that I should visit my 50th state at the age of 50.

It was a momentous occasion for me, so I parked the car on the side of the road about 50 yards short of the Maine state line on US-2 and ceremoniously walked into Maine as my son, Jeromy, snapped my photo. We were in Oxford County.

Not content to just step across the line I felt I should at least see a little something in the Pine Tree State, although our time was limited. We drove about a dozen miles into Maine to the little town of Bethel, where we got out, walked around the village center and browsed in a couple of the shops. Then we drove all the way back across New Hampshire to Vermont where we spent the night in a condo.

Feeling proud and satisfied with my accomplishment, I pulled out the road atlas that night to reflect back on my travels - to all 50 of the United States. My feelings were the same I have heard other travelers speak of after reaching the end of a long-time goal - both a sense of elation and of being let down all at the same time. The list of 50 states was complete. I felt I had been everywhere in the country and there was no where new to go - at least not in America.

It was then, while pouring over the atlas, I realized that although I had been in every state there were hundreds of spots on the map that I had not yet explored. That very evening I determined that I would begin my travels again - this time to visit every county. A tingle of excitement swept over me as if experiencing a new revelation. I had a fresh goal; my travels had just begun.

Over the next couple of weeks I carefully went over the records of my past travels and memories with a county map of each state. I listed only the counties for which I had a clear recollection of having visited. I had been to 1,035 counties - less than one-third of the whole. I determined that within the next ten years I would travel to them all, at a little more than 200 counties per year.

It's been 12 years now and I'm still far short of that initial optimistic goal. It's not that I've been slack, but that I had simply underestimated the enormity of the task. As of January 1, 2007, I have now visited 2,518 counties (just over 80% of the total) and have completed every county in 14 states. At my present rate I figure I have a fairly reasonable chance of visiting the last county within the next five years, but not without a very concentrated effort. The counties yet to go keep getting harder to reach.

I have begun this blog to record my personal record, as well as thoughts, statistics, county information and travel adventures. Occasionally I will also be sharing stories of other County Counters like myself. If you happen to discover this blog, and the idea of county counting intrigues you, please check back from time to time as I expect to make updates often. If you have thoughts, ideas or adventures in county counting to share, I'd love to hear from you.