Panhandle

This article is about the geographical feature. For the act of panhandling (approaching strangers to ask for money), see Begging. For the town in Texas, see Panhandle, Texas. For the park in San Francisco, see Panhandle (San Francisco).

Locations of panhandles within U.S. states

A panhandle is an informal geographic term for an elongated arm-like protrusion of a geo-political entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state.

Term

The term "panhandle" derives from the analogous part of a cooking pan, and its use is generally confined to the United States. A term used elsewhere is salient, derived from military salients. While similar to a peninsula in shape, a panhandle is not surrounded by water on three sides and connected to a geographical mainland. Instead, it is delimited by a land border on at least two sides and extends out from the larger geographical body of the administrative unit.

The panhandle shape is the result of arbitrarily drawn international or subnational boundaries, although the location of some administrative borders takes into account other considerations such as economic ties or topography. In the United States, a protrusion with a less elongated shape is informally called a bootheel.

United States panhandles

State	Largest city	Population	Area (sq. mi)	Population density (per sq. mi)
Alaska	Juneau	72,954	35,138	2
Connecticut	Stamford	220,209	96	2,294
Florida†	Tallahassee	1,222,492	11,304	108
Idaho	Coeur d'Alene	295,160	21,013	14
Maryland	Frederick	469,376	2,194	214
Nebraska	Scottsbluff	90,410	14,258	6
Oklahoma	Guymon	29,112	5,687	5
Texas	Amarillo	190,695	25,887	7
Eastern West Virginia	Martinsburg	212,483	3,499	61
Northern West Virginia	Wheeling	141,060	601	235

^† This definition of the Florida panhandle includes the following counties: Bay, Calhoun, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Taylor, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington.

• The six northwest Cook County, Illinois townships, outside of Chicago.
• The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway was often called the Panhandle, as it crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
• The San Francisco Panhandle, California

Panhandles outside the U.S.

Outside the United States, the term is not in common usage, with the arguable exception of the nearby New Brunswick Panhandle. Nonetheless, some people would describe the following characteristic territorial protrusions elsewhere as a corridor or an arm extending into an administratively different territory. Such shapes of territory can be a result of linguistic (or ethnic) lines, in addition to geographic features and other reasons. France considers panhandles as perfect spots to construct nuclear powerstations, for obvious reasons. Notable examples include:

Africa

• Far North Province, Cameroon
• Congo Pedicle, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Caprivi Strip, Namibia
• Casamance, Senegal
• Wadi Halfa Salient, Sudan

Americas

• Misiones, Argentina
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais, Brazil
• Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, British Columbia, Canada
• New Brunswick Panhandle, Canada
• Amazonas and Guainía Departments, Colombia
• Petén, Guatemala
• Tamaulipas, Mexico

Asia

• Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan
• Teknaf, Bangladesh
• Tanintharyi Region, Burma (Myanmar)
• Parrot's Beak, Cambodia
• Louroujina Salient, Cyprus
• Seven Sister States, India
• Sikkim, India
• Finger of the Galilee, Israel
• Batken, Kyrgyzstan

• North Hamgyŏng, South Hamgyŏng, and Ryanggang, together comprise the "panhandle" of North Korea^{[citation needed]}
• Karakoram, Pakistan
• Al-Malikiyah, Syria
• Sughd, Tajikistan
• Southern Thailand, Thailand
• Hatay Province, Turkey

Europe

• Tyrol and Vorarlberg together comprise the western "panhandle" of Austria
• Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Cheb District, Czech Republic
• Šluknov Hook, Czech Republic
• Enontekiö, Finland
• Charleville-Mézières, France
• Western Thrace, Greece
• Donegal, Republic of Ireland
• Monaghan, Republic of Ireland
• Province of Trieste, Italy
• Limburg, the Netherlands
• Northern Norway, Norway
• Gmina Bogatynia, Poland
• Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
• Canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland
• Bernina, Inn, Lugano and Mendrisio, Porrentruy Districts, Switzerland
• Budjak, Ukraine
• Dacorum district, United Kingdom

Historical

• Polish Corridor, Second Polish Republic (1919-1939)^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Bootheel
• Border irregularities of the United States
• Border
• Corridor (disambiguation)
• Enclave and exclave
• Fergana Valley (triple junction of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan)
• Gerrymandering
• Chicken's Neck (disambiguation)
• Political geography
• Salients, re-entrants and pockets
• The Thumb