There was a time when I had as one of my goals in life a visit to every American state capital city to get a good look at the capitol building.

Friday, October 12, 2001

There was a time when I had as one of my goals in life a visit to every American state capital city to get a good look at the capitol building. I actually did this with structures in Salem (Oregon), Boise (Idaho), Olympia (Washington, the state), Sacramento (California), Salt Lake City (Utah), and St. Paul. Then my goal was diverted with getting an education, marriage, working, and raising a family. However, I’ve been able to see other capitol buildings in Madison, Des Moines, Montpelier, Winnipeg and Halifax up in Canada, and even the one is Seoul, Korea.

However, I once made a mythical trip to each of our nation’s state capitol buildings, plus the big one in Washington, D.C. This journey was done with a marking pen on the pages of an atlas.

Again, there are some basic rules to use for this map challenge. The first one one is to use the most direct route between the capital cities of the nation, excluding Hawaii and Alaska. As the old saying could have been interpreted, you can’t get there from here by highway.

Second, the starting point for this challenge should be either St. Paul or Des Moines, depending on the reader’s state of residence.

Again, the entry and exit point for a state should be different. Also, the entire itinerary has to be done on pavements and bridges, and no ferry boat routings.

According to my original routing, no backtracking is needed. And as a real challenge, the routing should be done in a clockwise direction as much as possible.

Now, here’s the rotation for those state capital cities involved with this challenge. As a bonus, I’ll indicate the estimated mileage involved with this ersatz trip to all 48 states, plus the District of Columbia.

Oh yes, there’s one more detail. I’ve left off the names of the states for capitol building locations. There could be another challenge for the younger readers to supply those missing state names.

Starting in St. Paul, the routing goes to Madison, Springfield, Indianapolis, Lansing, Columbus, Frankfort and Nashville.

There might be a temptation to stay in the South. but lets go northeast to Charleston, Harrisburg, Albany, Montpelier, Concord, Augusta, Boston, Providence, Hartford, Trenton, Dover, Annapolis and the big time deal in Washington, D.C.

Now we’re back in the South. The next localities are Richmond, Raleigh, Columbia, Atlanta, Tallahassee, Montgomery, Jackson and Baton Rouge.

There, that takes care of all the capital cities east of the Mississippi River. Next on the agenda is the other big Austin in the nation, followed by Little Rock, Jefferson City, Des Moines, Lincoln, Topeka, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, Denver, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Carson City and Sacramento.

Next on the agenda is Salem, followed by Olympia, Boise, Helena, Bismarck and finally Pierre.

As promised, here’s the total mileage I once worked out for this cost-free, trouble-free, and mighty quick trip around the nation to all the capital cities of the various states, plus the nation’s capitol building. That mileage is approximately 13,440 miles.

Right about here let’s switch the topic to something else for the rest of the column.

Not long ago someone wanted to know if there were any historic trees in the area. To this I would like to add on a request regarding any landmark trees.

I am aware of that odd tree on the east side of Geneva Lake. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get more information about this twisted tree reportedly created by some Indians about two centuries ago as a landmark.

Maybe, with the help of our fine readers, we can come up with something which can be used for a future column or article in the Tribune.

Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.