Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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In my previous entry, I started playing around with the MLA Language Map. Today I decided to do some more investigations, this time starting with the English map, which shows the percentage of people in each county who speak English as their first language:


First, I thought I'd try and find the county in which the greatest percentage of respondents are English speakers. Guessing from the legend on the map above, it looks like I should be able to find one county with 99.58% English speakers. Looking at the map, though, gives an idea about how hard this may be: vast stretches of the midwest and southeast are marked with the darkest color, including almost all of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. It was trivially easy to find counties at 98% or higher (just wander around Mississippi and Alabama) but was extremely hard to cross the 99 barrier.

Where do you find the elusive 99? How about "up in the hills"? The Ozarks was where I found my first, and so far only, 99: Searcy County, Arkansas (99.06%, with only 64 Spanish speakers and 8 Italians). The Wikipedia entry is especially dry (even for a "county" entry) so I offer you some information about the controversy concerning the 1998 election for sheriff (pos-c.com link).

Encouraged by this success, I checked various other Ozark counties without finding any other 99s. Next stop, Appalachia. And surprise, West Virgina brought in the second 99+ (Pleasants County, 99.10%, only 63 Spanish speakers). Here's a small site with some local information (and the dry-as-a-bone Wikipedia entry). It also has a bridge. But Pleasants County is as high as I managed to get. Can anyone do better? You can do searches here.

Next entry: counties where very few people speak English. Of course you would expect to find most of these in the Southwest where Spanish is spoken by a significant population, but there are three counties in the US where a language besides Spanish or English is the most commonly spoken. I have found two of them at the moment, but the third is proving elusive so far.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 9:10:32 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I see your puny 99s and give you 100 percent: Powder River County, Montana. It even has a Boot Hill Cemetery, established 1876 at Deadwood Crossing. The HQ of Cross Ranch in the county was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The lovely town of Broadus lies in the center of the county. According to the town web site:

"We are located in southeastern Montana on the Powder River, near Custer National Forest. In the Powder River Valley, below the Little Big Horn Mountains, along Highway 212 - the route to the Lewis and Clark Trail and Pompeii's Pillar, between the Black Hills, the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand), Yellowstone Park and heading toward Glacier National Park, sits Broadus, Montana... Your home in the hills, it's the perfect base camp for your traveling adventures. You'll find yourself at home in the famous Judges Chambers Restaurant and Broadus Motels family owned by Jean Hough and son Stephen Held. Traveling out each day, you'll return to the finest food and accommodations, at a fraction of the cost in the surrounding area.

"Broadus lies in the center of Powder River County and is home to some of the finest wildlife in North America. Year around wild game abounds, making it a prime spot for photographers, family outings and hunting. With hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest and BLM in the region, along with private ranches and hundreds of miles of accessible roads there's no end to your scenic pleasure.

"Located in the midst of several Native American reservations you can get to know these people as they are today. The Powder River Valley was considered the last great hunting ground of the natives. It's common to find arrowheads and artifacts as you hike through these ancient lands.

"Dinosaur enthusiasts won't be left behind. Many of the world's finest skeletal remains were discovered in this former coastal region. The mighty T-REX was the ruler of this land millions of years ago. It's possible to find eerie reminders from many of the giants of that era."

I stayed at the town motel once. It had cable TV and shared bathrooms between rooms...
Frank
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 9:12:20 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Forgot to add: "Our deep sense of community and Western hospitality has given us the reputation of being the 'wavingest town in the West!'"
Frank
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 2:33:11 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I bow in deference to your impressive find. Indeed, the census report shows 100%: Powder River County's 1725 residents are all English speakers.

I'm a little concerned about visiting, though. From the same website you quoted above, "If you are interested in experiences most modern people don't have, consider calling varmints like coyote, fox, bobcat or the illusive mountain lion. With local ranchers reporting increasing loss due to these predators, your chances at a shot have never been better.... perhaps you'll find your way into a plane with professional predator control experts."
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 4:03:51 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
But they always wave at the lions before they blow their heads off...
Frank
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