Defining town limits as a circle probably ranks right behind firing on Fort Sumter on the list of bad ideas originating in the South. Circular town limits are virtually impossible to survey, as there is no straight line anywhere. A few towns in the South, no doubt in a decision celebrated by local surveyors, defined their town limits in the shape of an octagon, i.e. eight straight lines. Read more about it in the attached PDF, salvaged from the now extinct original incarnation of the North Carolina Map Blog.
North Carolina Map Blog
A place to discuss North Carolina's cartographic history
