408. New Madrid, New Madrid County (MO002)

Now THAT is what I’m talking about! Classical architecture for the win! From what little I know of this courthouse, it’s got this giant interior stained glass skylight dome. Times like this I really wish I could make these trips on weekdays so I could see stuff like that. I can only imagine that’s it’s absolutely stunning. I also understand there’s also one back in Little Rock and I’m thinking that one might be a little more likely to happen at some point.

Earthquake awareness seems to have become a theme for this trip! I found another cache belonging to the Central US Earthquake Consortium here at the New Madrid Historical Museum. Another ammo can, this time in the box behind that sign. This is also where I really began to notice the chill in the air. I’ve always been a little wary of going north in the winter time. While I like the cold, I am not made for it as a longer term thing. And, yes, oh Northern folks, I and my city are complete and total wimps about. The amount of snow and ice that would shut down Austin? You would just consider that an early spring Tuesday. I girded myself against the nippy air and then proceeded to do my business, leaving a trackable to go on its way. I wondered how many more in this series I would run across as I got into the car. There are eight member states, seven of which I have visited or would plan to visit this trip, so that left me the chance at five more of them? Assuming, of course, that there’s only one in each state. I would have to do the research on that another time because I was actually thinking about something else.

As we have thus far noticed, while the county and seat model the most common, other states have different methods. Louisiana has parishes. Alaska has boroughs. Some counties have dual seats. I hadn’t thought that I would have to tackle this one until I got farther east, but some cities are independent. They are not part of a county, and themselves function as both the municipal and county authority. There are 41 independent cities in the United States: all 38 cities in Virginia, Baltimore, Carson City, and, most saliently, St. Louis. My point here (and I do have one) is how am I going to number St. Louis when I get there? Obviously my count is going to go up one because it’s a county equivalent, but how will I reflect it with the state specific count? I have time before I have to answer that, but it was on my mind as I left on the way to…