Springfield Colorado

The Library of Congress has some pictures from Baca County, Colorado. This is in the southeast corner of the state, bordering Oklahoma and Kansas. In the summer of 1936, a drought committee had a meeting in the county seat, Springfield.
Seventy two years later, an actress playing Sarah Palin said “I can see Russia from my back porch.” In all fairness, the politician never said that. The buzz about this joke led this blog to do a bit of research.
Alaska and Russia are less than 3 miles apart at their closest point in the Bering Strait where two islands, Russia’s Big Diomede Island and Alaska’s Little Diomede Island, are located. In winter it is possible to walk across the frozen Bering Strait border between these two islands. … Alaska is a big place. It has ten times the land mass of Georgia, with less population than Gwinnett County. There is a town on Little Diomede Island called Diomede. It checks in at 65°N 168°W. (For our purposes today, we are going to ignore minutes and seconds) The town of Wasilla is the home of Sarah Palin. It can be found at 61°N 149°W . Diomede is four degrees north of Wasilla, and Nineteen degrees west.
Lets put this in local terms. Atlanta is 33°N 84°W . According to the atlas, 37°N 103°W is the point where New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma come together. This is Baca County. It is as far from Atlanta as Wasilla, Alaska, is from Russia. You cannot see Colorado from your back porch.