Carthage, Mississippi

First timer? In this (hopefully) once-a-day blog, I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

Dan – After my two TXs in a row, I ambled east and landed in another USer . . . MS; 27/28 (getting awfully close to PS-land!); 5/10; 1; 152.7. I’m only 0.3 away from a new record low Score.  Here’s my landing map:

The river south of my landing (in whose watershed I landed) is peculiarly labeled as a series of “lakes,” but actually is the Pearl R (5th hit, making it the 135th river with 5 or more hits); on to the G of M.

Carthage (pop about 5000) is the county seat of Leake County, which happens to be an exact square that is 24 miles on a side; precisely 576 square miles. Leake County is the only county in MS to be distinguished by its perfect squareness.

It turns out that just recently (July 22nd), I landed near Carthage, but chose instead to feature Kosciusko, which is the next town north of Carthage. That was quite the robust post, featuring Oprah Winfrey, James Meredith and Kosciusko, the 18th Century Polish military leader.

On the face of it, Carthage seems to be relatively GD, and the most notable feature might end up being the squareness of Leake County!

So, a little more information about the Pearl River.  Here’s the watershed map of the Pearl. Note how it’s the state boundary between LA & MS down near the Gulf.

I landed fairly close to the headwaters.  Leake County is the square county (of course!) through the middle of which the river cuts.  (Ouch.  There must be a better way of saying that).  Note that even though the county to the east looks square, it has a slight irregularity near one corner.  Anyway, here’s a picture of a Coast Guard cutter on the lower Pearl:

I assume that Carthage is named after ancient Carthage, about which I know practically nothing. From Wiki:

Carthage (meaning new town) refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. According to Roman legend Carthage was founded in 814 BC by Phoenician colonists under the leadership of Elissa (Queen Dido). It became a large and rich city and thus a major power in the Mediterranean.

The resulting rivalry with Rome was accompanied by several wars with respective invasions of each other’s homeland.

Hannibal (Carthage’s most celebrated personality) invaded Italy in the Second Punic War which culminated in a Carthaginian victory and led to a serious threat to the continuation of Roman rule over Italy

However, after the Third Punic War, Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. The Romans refounded Carthage, which became one of the three most important cities of the Empire. It remained one of the most important Roman cities until the Muslim conquest when it was destroyed a second time in AD 698.

Here’s a map showing the City of Carthage and the maximum extent of the Carthaginian Empire:

Here’s a shot of the ruins of Carthage today:

This is a little random, but here’s a picture of a tractor in Carthage:

That’ll do it.

KS

Greg

© 2009 A Landing A Day

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