QA Graphic

Geographic Center of the Nation

In 1996, I drove across the country from Concord, Massachusetts to San Jose, California. I accepted a new job and needed to relocate. So I packed the car and headed west.

Before heading on my journey, I did some research about unique places to visit. Driving across the country isn't something that people do all the time, and I figured that I should educate places on my journey.

In my research, I discovered that I was going to be within a few miles of the Geographic Center of the United States of America. I thought it would be neat to discover that place and added it to my list of places to go and see.

Logging My Journey

Center Nationi Mac

It turns out that where I thought the Geographic Center of the Nation was located was abandoned. It wasn't anywhere near the experience

In October 1996, I put together a website of my journey. The page was never completed, and I took down the link many years ago. I recently found the pages on some CDs and thought it would be neat to put the site up again.

I fixed up some of the HTML and combine the pages into a single page. I think I had multiple pages back in 1996 because of bandwidth issues of loading a lot of graphics. FYI: The pages were done using Adobe PageMill 2.0 on my Quadra 66AV.


Silly Graphics I created to navigate users through my journey.

Where is the Geographic Center of the United States?

The location that I found might not have been the real Geographic Center of the United States that I thought it was. Turns out that there is an American flag someplace along Old Highway 85.

From a description by wharfrat3 on Road Trippers.com:

We didn't go here, instead, we went to the real center of the country. Go north out of Belle Fourche about 15 miles on US 85. Turn left onto Old Hwy 85 and go about 7.5-8 miles.

On the right, in a file, you'll see an American flag. And 2 USGS markers, one from 1959, the other from 1962, marking the spot. If you're traveling on US 85, it's a nice detour.