# Geographic Oddity Puzzler Answer **URL:** \ **Category:** The Show\ **Tags:** plymouth\ **Created:** [May 16, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941 "2010-05-16T17:10:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZombieWoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/91b2a8/32.png) [@ZombieWoof](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ZombieWoof)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/1 "2010-05-16T17:10:53Z")
Washington DC, although it is also possible to head due west and land in Virginia, depending on where you are when your timing belt breaks. ---
**Author:** ![ZombieWoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/91b2a8/32.png) [@ZombieWoof](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ZombieWoof)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/2 "2010-05-16T17:18:38Z")
Also due south. ---
**Author:** ![TomDNC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@TomDNC](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TomDNC)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/3 "2010-05-17T11:44:53Z")
In the same vein as Washington, DC, there are locations in Fargo, ND; Moorhead, MN; St Joseph, MO; Elmwood, KS; and Matewan, KY that also qualify due to the odd loops in the rivers that are the borders between states. ---
**Author:** ![ZombieWoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/91b2a8/32.png) [@ZombieWoof](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ZombieWoof)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/4 "2010-05-17T18:09:46Z")
No, you are completely wrong. But I would be interested to know what you googled to get so many “answers”. ---
**Author:** ![Jayg25](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jayg25](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Jayg25)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/5 "2010-05-17T19:12:15Z")
I think that Ridgely, West Virginia is the correct answer. ---
**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/6 "2010-05-17T19:18:10Z")
What’s the question? ---
**Author:** ![aristos\_achaion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@aristos\_achaion](https://community.cartalk.com/u/aristos_achaion)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/7 "2010-05-17T21:04:14Z")
I suspect that Washington, DC, is the expected answer, since the question was carefully phrased about hitting a _state_ but leaving a _city_ (since DC isn’t in a state), though, from examining a map, you’d have to pick your starting point in DC pretty carefully to hit Maryland heading due N,S,E and W as the crow flies. The only other possibilities I can think of are parts of Fulton County, KY (but there really isn’t a city in the non-contiguous part) or maybe parts of Alaska, depending on how territorial waters are laid out (assuming we allowed “state” to refer to “sovereign power”, and thus Canada, rather than simply “part of the United States”). ---
**Author:** ![Nashville09876](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nashville09876](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Nashville09876)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/8 "2010-05-17T23:40:59Z")
The only place where you can go North, South , East and West and still hit Maryland is the Northeast corner of Washington DC ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/original/3X/1/d/1d47c66a543aa6c5a7873bb2320858f978ff52ed.png) [@system](https://community.cartalk.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/9 "2010-05-18T01:26:41Z")
The answer is STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT because no matter in which of the 4 directions one travels one eventually enters New York State. (By the way, did you know there is a Canadian equivalent to this puzzle?) ---
**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/10 "2010-05-18T01:32:36Z")
I think you’re right Tom, if the question is what city has a location where you end up in a different state by going N, S, E, or W. Any city with a winding river running through it separating it from another state is ripe for this. I don’t know what ZW’s smoking, as usual. ---
**Author:** ![TomDNC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@TomDNC](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TomDNC)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 12:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/11 "2010-05-18T12:36:02Z")
I used Google Maps instead of its search engine. I knew that a peninsula with a NE, NW, SE, or SW direction could produce this “oddity”. There are many such peninsulas but only a few have a city. Most of the peninsulas created by winding rivers are frequently flooded and not a good place for a city. ---
**Author:** ![AllyGator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@AllyGator](https://community.cartalk.com/u/AllyGator)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/12 "2010-05-18T16:12:29Z")
The correct answer is Washington Island, WI, the island on the tip of the Door peninsula. The puzzler only said “travel”, not “drive”. If you “travel” in any compass direction, you will end up in Michigan, albeit that you will enter Michigan territory in the middle of the lake. ---
**Author:** ![ZombieWoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/91b2a8/32.png) [@ZombieWoof](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ZombieWoof)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/13 "2010-05-18T16:18:10Z")
What you’re missing, feen2060, if that IS your real name, is the Puzzler posits that the city and state meet at the border of the state. Stamford does not fulfill this qualification. ---
**Author:** ![ZombieWoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/91b2a8/32.png) [@ZombieWoof](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ZombieWoof)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/14 "2010-05-18T16:34:02Z")
That was a well done ad hominem attack, texases. ---
**Author:** ![Justinian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@Justinian](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Justinian)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/15 "2010-05-18T17:36:52Z")
One should examine the question carefully. It says you are “in a city”, which rules out Washington Island. It also says “There is only one city in the United States whereby traveling along the four compass points, north, south, east and west, the first state you reach is identical no matter which direction you choose.” This strongly implies that the answer is based on the location _of the city_, not of a specific point within it, which rules out Washington, D.C., Fargo, and various other suggestions above based on loopy river boundaries. (Also, at one point, the question says “you come to the border of your home state and its neighbor,” and residents of Washington, D.C. do not have a “home state.”) Finally, ZW, where does it say that the city has to be located along the state border? ---
**Author:** ![dakooz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/fbc32d/32.png) [@dakooz](https://community.cartalk.com/u/dakooz)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/16 "2010-05-18T17:42:52Z")
The answer I submitted last night!! ---
**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/17 "2010-05-18T17:43:47Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![dakooz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/fbc32d/32.png) [@dakooz](https://community.cartalk.com/u/dakooz)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/18 "2010-05-18T17:49:12Z")
Checked Washington Island and it is incorporated, it’s not just some ‘place’. What definition of a city would they be using? ---
**Author:** ![dakooz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/fbc32d/32.png) [@dakooz](https://community.cartalk.com/u/dakooz)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/19 "2010-05-18T17:59:08Z")
While Stamford meets the critieria, there are other places in that thumb of my home state that would qualify - then we get into defining a ‘city’. ---
**Author:** ![Justinian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@Justinian](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Justinian)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941/20 "2010-05-18T18:36:58Z")
According to Wikipedia, which may or may not be right, Washington Island is an unincorporated area which forms part of the Town of Washington; towns in Wisconsin are unincorporated minor civil divisions, like townships in other states. [Next page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/geographic-oddity-puzzler-answer/48941.md?page=2)