Every Lake
Delaware
Three counties, a compass-struck arc for a border, and the first signature on the Constitution.
Delaware in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Delaware.
About Delaware
Delaware is the second-smallest state and the only one with a curve for a border. The Twelve-Mile Circle, swung with a compass from the courthouse cupola at New Castle, arcs across the top of the board — the only circular boundary in the country — and below it the Mason-Dixon line runs due south to the Atlantic. The land is the flattest in the nation: a few rolling Piedmont miles above Wilmington, then coastal plain the whole way down past the Delaware Bay marshes to Cape Henlopen. Three counties, New Castle, Kent and Sussex, have held their lines since the 1680s.
Delaware ratified the Constitution on December 7, 1787, first of the thirteen, and has been the First State ever since. Dover has been the capital since 1777, moved inland from New Castle while British warships were working the river. The map's spine is I-95, which clips the top of the state through Wilmington between Baltimore and Philadelphia, while Route 1 runs the length of the peninsula to the beach towns at Lewes and Rehoboth. More businesses are registered in that top corner than the state has residents.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 2 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
