County Oddities

Let's start with a trivia question.

Did you know that only forty-six of our fifty states are divided into counties with county governments?

• Connecticut and Rhode Island have counties but no county governments.
  (At least one other state has some counties without county governments; more on that in a minute.)
• Alaska has boroughs, but they don't cover the entire state.
  (There are other states whose counties don't cover the entire state; more on that in two minutes.)
• Louisiana is divided into parishes instead of counties.

South Dakota has sixty-six counties but only sixty-four county seats. Two counties (which are Indian reservations) are "unorganized" and borrow the county seats of neighboring counties!

unorganized county	neighborly county	county seat
Shannon	Fall River	Hot Springs
Todd	Tripp	Winner

In contrast, the U.S. has counties that have two county seats!

state	county	seats
Alabama	St. Clair	Ashville	Pell City
Arkansas	Clay	Corning	Piggott
	Logan	Booneville	Paris
	Mississippi	Blytheville	Osceola
	Yell	Danville	Dardanelle
Iowa	Lee	Fort Madison	Keokuk
Kentucky	Campbell	Alexandria	Newport
	Kenton	Covington	Independence
Massachusetts	Plymouth	Brockton	Plymouth
Mississippi	Bolivar	Cleveland	Rosedale
	Harrison	Biloxi	Gulfport
Missouri	Jackson	Independence	Kansas City
New Hampshire	Hillsborough	Manchester	Nashua
New York	Seneca	Ovid	Waterloo

You know that the capital of the United States is not in any state, but in an indepedent area, right? The District of Columbia is sandwiched between Maryland and Virginia.

Well, the capital of Nevada is not in any county! Carson City is surrounded by Washoe, Storey, Lyon, and Douglas counties.

Both Baltimore, Maryland and St. Louis, Missouri lie outside of all counties as well.

Virginia has forty-one such "independent" cities (in addition to its ninety-five counties):

Alexandria		Bedford		Bristol		Buena Vista		Charlottesville
	Chesapeake		Clifton Forge		Colonial Heights		Covington
Danville		Emporia		Fairfax		Falls Church		Franklin
	Fredericksburg		Galax		Hampton		Harrisonburg
Hopewell		Lexington		Lynchburg		Manassas		Manassas Park
	Martinsville		Newport News		Norfolk		Norton
Petersburg		Poquoson		Portsmouth		Radford		Richmond
	Roanoke		Salem		South Boston		Staunton
Suffolk		Virginia Beach		Waynesboro		Williamsburg		Winchester

Now, just to confuse you, Virginia's independent city named Roanoke is right next door to (but not in) Roanoke county, while the independent city named Richmond and the county named Richmond do not touch.

Not confused yet? Okay, two of Virginia's counties are named "James City" and "Charles City".

Not to be confused with an independent city is a consolidated city-county. This is where a municipal government has merged with a county government.

In some cases, the city includes the entire county:

city	county	state
Anaconda	Deer Lodge*	Montana
Broomfield	Broomfield	Colorado
Columbus	Muscogee	Georgia
Denver	Denver	Colorado
Lexington	Fayette	Kentucky
Lynchburg	Moore	Tennessee
Nantucket	Nantucket	Massachusetts
Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania
San Francisco	San Francisco	California

*This is not to be confused with the city of Deer Lodge, Montana, in Powell County.

In other cases, the city includes all of the county that is not in separate municipalities:

city	county	state
Athens	Clarke	Georgia
Augusta	Richmond	Georgia
Butte	Silver Bow	Montana
Indianapolis	Marion	Indiana
Jacksonville	Duval	Florida
Kansas City	Wyandotte	Kansas
Louisville	Jefferson	Kentucky
Nashville	Davidson	Tennessee

The county I grew up in has nine incorporated municipalities in it. Can you name a single municipality that covers five counties? It is the subject of a Lien À Trois. There is more information HERE.

Florida's 54,000 square miles are divided into sixty-seven counties. Seems normal to me.

Its neighbor to the north, Georgia, is slightly larger in land area, with 58,000 square miles. However, it is divided into more than twice as many counties, one hundred fifty-nine, to be exact. These include Clarke county, covering only 110 square miles, and Echols county, which doesn't have any incorporated towns!

There are other U.S. counties with no incorporated municipalities:

• Alpine County, California
• Mariposa County, California
• Trinity County, California
• Windham County, Connecticut
• McCreary County, Kentucky
• Baltimore County, Maryland
  (not to be confused with the aforementioned independent city of Baltimore, Maryland)
• Howard County, Maryland
• Douglas County, Nevada
• Esmeralda County, Nevada
• Eureka County, Nevada
• Lander County, Nevada
• Mineral County, Nevada
• Nye County, Nevada
• Storey County, Nevada
• Hyde County, North Carolina
• Arlington County, Virginia
• Gloucester County, Virginia
• Mathews County, Virginia
• Florence County, Wisconsin
• Menominee County, Wisconsin

Northumberland County, Virginia has no incorporated cities of its own, but Kilmarnock in Lancaster County spills over into it.

And then of course, there are the counties of Hawaiʻi. . . .

The State Of Hawaiʻi (Mokuʻaina O Hawaiʻi) is an unusual case. It is the opposite of Connecticut and Rhode Island in that there are county governments but no city governments. The state lists four counties, incorporating the eight major islands:

county	island(s)
Hawaiʻi	Hawaiʻi
Honolulu	Oʻahu
Kauaʻi	Kauaʻi, Niʻihau1
Maui	Kahoʻolawe2, Lanaʻi, Maui, Molokaʻi

¹Privately owned. Don't go there!
²Kahoʻolawe is the only one of the eight that's uninhabited.

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