# Paper towns? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 26, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048 "2012-04-26T19:29:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![margorothspiegelman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce73a5/32.png) [@margorothspiegelman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margorothspiegelman)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/1 "2012-04-26T19:29:25Z")
Do paper towns truly exist? Is there a list that can be found of said towns? ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/2 "2012-04-26T19:41:50Z")
What do you mean by paper towns? I understand that some map makers put some fictitious towns on their maps as a trap for competitors who would copy their work. Is this what you’re referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/3 "2012-04-26T19:51:50Z")
Do you mean towns constructed of paper, or towns that exist only on paper, or towns where the major industry is manufacturing of paper? Because I’m pretty sure all three exist, but they’re completely different things. ---
**Author:** ![PacifistPorcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PacifistPorcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PacifistPorcupine)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/4 "2012-04-26T20:00:51Z")
Maybe he means towns that map manufacturers build out of paper in the real world, with the hopes of having the competitors put them in their maps. And they put a big paper paper mill in them. ---
**Author:** ![SubaRhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@SubaRhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SubaRhubarb)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/5 "2012-04-26T20:16:54Z")
Are you trying to advertise that book? Wiki: This is the first time Margo calls their town a “paper town”, describing it as “fake” and“not even hard enough to be made of plastic”. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/6 "2012-04-26T20:17:13Z")
I grew up in a paper town, but most of the paper mills left town. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/7 "2012-04-26T20:26:37Z")
Sounds like a Dunder Mifflin competitor. ---
**Author:** ![SubaRhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@SubaRhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SubaRhubarb)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/8 "2012-04-26T20:30:57Z")
From the wiki : “The title, which refers to unbuilt subdivisions and ‘copyright trap’ towns that appears on maps but don’t exist, unintentionally underscores the novel’s weakness…” Meant to have that in first post. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/9 "2012-04-26T20:59:52Z")
> [@SubaRhubarb](#): > > Are you trying to advertise that book? I had no idea what you were talking about until I Googled the OP’s name, which is apparently the name of a character in [a recent children’s book](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Towns) called Paper Towns. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/10 "2012-04-26T21:54:10Z")
Also, the [Straight Dope column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1058/do-maps-have-copyright-traps-to-permit-detection-of-unauthorized-copies) on paper towns, or copyright traps, also [the Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry#Maps). ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-towns/620048/11 "2012-04-27T04:30:01Z")
Paper towns certainly did exist as 19th century boosters fanned across the Midwest and Southwest, platting a city at virtually every river ford or stream mouth. These schemes failed as neither purchasers of the town lots nor the hoped-for city ever materialized. Most of the plats were vacated, but there was no real reason to, so there are probably dozens of farms and ranches around the country that have forgotten townsites platted across them. But the townsites, duly platted, appeared on official maps for decades and were repeated on other maps by far-away compilers with no knowledge of the territory. After World War II, thousands of “ranchettes” or building lots were sold in places such as Lehigh Acres, Florida, Rio Rancho, New Mexico, or California City, California, and in huge subdivisions in Taos and Luna Counties, New Mexico, and various other places. Streets were graded but never paved, and utilities were never put in. Today these “antiquated subdivisions” are easy to spot from the air, but have only a scattering of residents among all the absentee owners still sending in their $2 annual property taxes, or those who’ve actually visited their property and let it go. “Paper streets,” rights of way that were dedicated but never built, are found in almost every town in the country. They used to be a huge problem for mapmakers like myself, but are now easier to spot and eliminate from maps. Finally, there are “trap streets,” deliberately placed by mapmakers to spot copyright violations. These were never as prevalent as the general public believes, and since 1991 (the _Feist_ decision) they have been of no legal use whatever. Virtually all map mistakes are just that: mistakes. Commercial map publishing is a low-margin business, and there is, unfortunately, no real market value to greater accuracy.