Dave's County Collection

Utah, California, and Nevada are complete!

Click on the map below to see the rest of the country

The counties collected in this trip are green.

Sept 1-14, 2009. Another unusually long trip netted me 91 new counties in six states, including three completions. Despite the long distance from home, I was able to pick up at least one new county every day except for the first and last, making nearly every day of the trip enjoyable. Highlights included driving up Hwy 1 along the California coast, visiting San Francisco for the first time, seeing the highest point in the continental U.S. (Mt. Whitney) as well as several snow-capped peaks in the Cascades, and driving through a big tree. As always, a detailed trip report complete with pictures should be coming soon, but may never materialize depending on my free time over the next few weeks. I'll give it my best effort.

Now only 212 counties remain unvisited, and they seem to be organizing themselves into about six or seven future trips.

The 2009 annual total is

91

The grand total now stands at

2886

A table below shows the progress made in each state.

By now I suppose I should share a few words on this bizarre hobby. I collect counties. I drive all over the country, stopping at every county seat (the city with a court house) on the way, and take inventory of all I've passed through. It's not an especially common pastime, but it's fun and even borders on being enlightening. There are other county collectors, too, enough that the formation of a club was inevitable. They call it the "Extra Miler Club" after the additional mileage members have to put in on a trip to pick up new counties on the way. If you'd like additional information, check out their web site at http://www.extramilerclub.org .

My daughters Molly and Maria collect counties as well, although they aren't as into the hobby as I am and may not actually be aware of their participation. Click here to see a record of their conquests.

Also, here's an April 1999 newspaper article from the Kansas City Star by Jim Fisher.

* This is my working total (see below for details). In order to be on par with other Extra Miler Club members, I raise my 3098 county figure to an ultimate total of 3133 by adding 39 Virginia independent cities (and subtracting the 5 Virginia counties that have been replaced by independent cities from my total) and including the city-county of Broomfield, Colorado, which became a county after I had visited it (see below). Tossing in the 14 counties I've driven through without seeing the county seat, my current EMC total is 2844. The total shown on the map (2848) differs from my total since mine doesn't include Census Areas (which aren't political entities, so I don't count them), and the map's creator hasn't added the new boroughs of Skagway and Wrangell in Southeast Alaska yet.

In addition to counting counties by state, I've begun keeping track of counties of some geographical significance. Some are on a coast or along a river, and some border on another country. The six ex-counties listed at the end have been combined with other counties after existing independently for some time (see notes, below).

One more weird thing I do...the Teva Challenge!

Notes:
Alaska has 14 organized boroughs and 4 municipalities (with functions essentially similar to those of county or independent city governments) and a large unorganized area. The U.S. Census Bureau has arbitrarily divided the unorganized area into "Census areas" prone to frequent changes. Because they do not correspond to any government jurisdiction, I do not count them among the county-equivalents of the state. Click here for a list of the seats for Alaska's boroughs and municipalities.
Colorado got a new county in late 2001 when Broomfield seceded from parts of four counties to establish itself as a city-county. I was in Broomfield in 1999, and saw the city office complex, but could not count it in my 1999 total (since it was not yet an independent entity) nor could I agree to count it in my 2001 total (since I hadn't been there that year). At this point I have decided to treat Broomfield as I would a new independent city in Virginia and keep my personal total as is, and to increase my EMC total by one to account for the new entity.
Louisiana is divided into parishes, which perform the same governmental functions as counties.
Maryland has 23 counties and one independent city (Baltimore).
Missouri has 114 counties and one independent city (St. Louis).
Nevada has 16 counties and one independent city (Carson City).
Virginia today has 95 counties and 39 independent cities. Because of occasional changes in county/city status, I have chosen to count a Virginia county only after I have visited the downtown of the county seat and each independent city within or adjacent to its borders. In addition to the 95 present-day counties, five former counties were completely absorbed by the independent cities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, and Suffolk, making my working total 100. See this map for details.
Six ex-counties in Georgia, South Dakota, and Tennessee are here because they meet the following criteria:

• They were organized counties, with county seats, which were annexed to adjoining counties (Campbell and Milton, Georgia, and James, Tennessee); or
• They were unorganized counties existing in that state for at least three consecutive decennial U.S. censuses and subsequently annexed to other counties (Armstrong, Washabaugh, and Washington, South Dakota)

There may be additional older examples, although these are the only ones I've discovered whose lives ended in the 20th century. While I'm not counting them specifically, visiting them was a requirement for counting the counties that annexed them. More information about so-called "ghost counties" can be found here:

GHOST COUNTIES: Your Guide to America's Dead, Forgotten Counties

Additonal Links

Court House Photos
Other county collectors
Should there be more counties?