Just in case this question should come up in a conversation, here’s the answer as to just how large Freeborn County is in two ways.

First, there are 20 townships in the county. Each township consists of 36 sections, each a square mile in size. Thus, 20 townships multiplied by 36 gives us 720 square miles. This total includes land, water and wetlands.

Second, this county is larger than five European nations combined, plus a few other places.

Now, right about here, it’s up to me to prove that last wild statement.

Okay, let’s start with what several encyclopedias say is the smallest state (nation) in the world – Vatican City. This spiritual and governmental center of the Roman Catholic Church, ruled by the pope, is right in the center of Rome, Italy, and only 108.7 acres in size. There are a multitude of American parks and farms which are much larger.

Here in Albert Lea one can combine Bancroft Bay and Edgewater Parks and still have 28 acres left over to equal the size of Vatican City.

The next smallest of the European nations is the Principality of Monaco which is just 384 acres in size. This dinky spot on the map is on the Riviera coast of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounded by France on the other three sides.

The total acreage of Albert Lea’s parks and recreational areas, plus city owned property, would easily match the size of Monaco.

Not long ago I asked Steve Jahnke, Albert Lea’s city engineer, this community’s actual size. He replied it was 12.83 square miles. That’s about half the size of another European nation named San Marino.

This small republic is located in the Apennine Mountains of

northern Italy. It, thus, is 24 square miles in size, or about twice the size of Albert Lea. San Marino is, by the way, a rather obscure place completely surrounded by Italy.

The fourth European nation on my list is Liechtenstein. This principality is located in the Alps between Switzerland and Austria. It’s only 61 square miles in size. Two of this country’s townships combined are larger than this nation with 11 square miles left over.

There are two more small European nations to consider in this survey of places smaller than Freeborn County.

One is Andorra, a principality in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France.

The size of this oddball nation is 175 square miles. That’s equivalent to combining five of this country’s townships and ending up with an extra five square miles.

There’s another European nation which I thought would be a likely candidate for being smaller than this county. However, a further check shows that Luxembourg, located between France, Belgium and Germany, is 998 square miles in size.

So far, the total for these five European nations is 263 square miles. This still leaves 457 square miles which are available to continue this comparison project to size up this county with a few more places.

One of

those places is Guam Island in the Western Pacific Ocean. This part of our nation since 1898 is 212 square miles in size.

Another place which could easily fit within Freeborn County with lots of room to spare is the American portion of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea.

The total square miles for this collection of small islands is 133. Incidentally, this part of our nation was once known as the Danish West Indies until it was purchased by the U.S. in 1916 for $25 million.

Another almost forgotten part of the overseas portion of our nation is a place in the South Pacific Ocean known as American Samoa. The 76 square mile total size of these small islands would equal two Freeborn County townships with a few sections to spare.

The total size of five European nations and three overseas portions of

the U.S. results in still having one township, or 36 square miles left over. And with that, I’ll just conclude my efforts to prove that Freeborn County is a little larger than expected.

(Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears each Friday.)