Ever wondered why Michigan has two pieces? How about why Alaska isn't connected to the rest of the United States?

The state borders are a lot weirder than they first appear, and often simple river borders will have crazy zig-zags that seem to arbitrarily cross the river.

When rivers shape, borders don't, leaving states with strange pieces on the wrong side of the river.

Some states like Oklahoma and West Virgina have bizarre panhandles, and Kentucky even has a part cut off my Missouri. Its a strange border situation called an exclave, which is when a part of a the state is only reachable by land through other states or countries.

Virginia also has the eastern shore which is strangley is on the other side of the Chesapeake bay.

Other bizarre borders include New York and New Jersey, where Liberty island and Ellis island are weirdly part of New York but are surrounded by New Jersey waters. Even stranger is that New York only owns a small peice of ellis island. The island was expanded, but the new land was over New Jersey borders, so it stayed new jersey. Leaving New York with a bizzare enclave on an new jersey island.

Onother weird border is that Delaware has some land on New Jersey's side of the Delaware river. This strange situation is because inside Delaware's 12 mile circle, the border is the high water mark of the river, so when the river was filled in the new land became Delaware.

Music:

Star Spangled Banner - American National Anthem
When Johnny Comes Marching Home - Civil War Song
America the Beautiful - 'Murica

Weird Borders: Why countries have pieces detached: https://youtu.be/elybAzSVSHc

Why countries are landlocked: https://youtu.be/YtYoLLQTLFQ