# “Terrible Maps” **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 31, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946 "2020-07-31T22:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/41 "2020-08-04T20:30:21Z")
I agree with you. OTOH, I think learning is cool too. I’d never heard of the Mexican Archipelago. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/42 "2020-08-05T01:26:48Z")
Yes those maps were interesting, not terrible.That eagle 20 year ground trace was truly fascinating! ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/43 "2020-08-05T15:40:52Z")
Checking one of the maps to find out what I should think about the explosion in Beirut. It’s “well, life is like this”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/44 "2020-08-14T22:05:00Z")
Thank you for the better link with 52 terrible maps. LOL Map of every American city / Russian Empire c.2017 / Countries arranged geographically. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/45 "2020-08-16T03:40:36Z")
Another humble submission: Old aerial photos that Mixdenny has positively identified (about 25,000): [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/iobdfkg.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/iobdfkg) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/46 "2020-08-16T04:20:01Z")
Was there any mention of the Men Who Moved Mountains in the 1860’s? When the first Transcontinental Railroad was being built, the federal government gave out subsidies to help them along. It was understood that building a railroad through the mountains was much more expensive that building of flat land. It was also true that information didn’t flow as quickly then as now, and the politicians in Washington didn’t know much about the geography of the Far West. So, the barons who were building the railroad drew maps showing the Sierra Nevada mountains continuing farther west towards Sacramento than they actually were. Based on these bogus maps, they raked in fraudulent subsidies for building in mountainous territory that wasn’t. Thus, they became The Men Who Moved Mountains. Source: A book I found in a library about 35 years ago called [“Iron Wheels And Broken Men” by Richard O’Connor](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/richard-oconnor-17/iron-wheels-and-broken-men-the-railroad-barons-/), in which he writes of the greed, fraud, and treachery in the building of the railroad. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/47 "2020-08-16T13:35:13Z")
a bit late on this one, but my state’s prison system houses a few Federal inmates, who are deemed to be too much at risk from other Federal inmates. In turn the Feds have taken some of our inmates into their system when they were deemed too problematic to keep in state. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/48 "2020-08-16T14:34:21Z")
Oh, that is nice! I Like maps too: [https://schumanchu.eu/html/r/r\_00004~map02.html](https://schumanchu.eu/html/r/r_00004~map02.html) [https://schumanchu.eu/html/r/r\_00004~map01.html](https://schumanchu.eu/html/r/r_00004~map01.html) [https://schumanchu.eu/html/r/r\_00005~map03.html](https://schumanchu.eu/html/r/r_00005~map03.html) the wronger, the better! ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/49 "2020-08-16T14:52:39Z")
Did you draw this map? If so, and those are railway tracks to San Antone, you are a genius. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/50 "2020-08-16T14:55:58Z")
Thanks! I made it a few years ago for a Johnny Cash community on Google+ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/51 "2020-08-19T16:45:51Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > [:: SCHUMANCHU](https://schumanchu.eu/html/r/r_00004~map01.html) I have no idea what the title was but about 45 years ago I had a book which featured state maps like that. Tuscaloosa was something like “Tusk-a-loosa” with a picture of an elephant missing a tusk. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/52 "2020-08-19T18:54:00Z")
You make me wonder if anybody will remember any of the BS I made up in those maps in 45 years. 🤔 I guess that happens rather with printed paper than with pixels. Whatever, hope you enjoyed it ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/53 "2020-09-17T16:22:26Z")
Bumping because I found a real map of tribes. > **[Map of the Indian tribes of North America, about 1600 A.D. along the...](https://www.loc.gov/item/2002622260/)** > > Relief shown pictorially. "Pendleton's Lithography." From: American Antiquarian Society. Transactions and collections. Vol. 2, 1836, fol. p. 264. Hand colored to show the location of Indian tribes and 11 linguistic families. Available also through... ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/54 "2020-09-17T18:12:49Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Bumping because I found a real map of tribes. . > > [Map of the Indian tribes of North America, about 1600 A.D. along the Atlantic, & about 1800 A.D. westwardly | Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2002622260/) There are plenty of [good maps of Native American tribes](http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/united_states_indian_tribes.htm) before contact with Europeans. The information isn’t hard to find. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/55 "2020-09-18T03:05:54Z")
Hmm. Why is there a big blank spot over West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana, between the Erie and Shawnee? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/56 "2020-09-18T03:44:08Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Hmm. Why is there a big blank spot over West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana, between the Erie and Shawnee?. Look at the map key. There’s insufficient information to identify which groups were there. Such maps are mostly based on accounts of the first European explorers, who recorded the tribal affiliations and languages. Sometimes the information wasn’t recorded. In some areas, like in south Florida, the groups disappeared before enough of their language had been recorded to classify it. (The Seminoles are not mapped, because they originated after the arrival of Europeans, largely as refugees from other tribes.) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/57 "2020-09-18T16:02:32Z")
Here is a US map on climate risk. > **[Opinion | Every Place Has Its Own Climate Risk. What Is It Where You Live?...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/18/opinion/wildfire-hurricane-climate.html)** > > Enter your county and we’ll tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/58 "2020-09-18T19:07:31Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@Acsenray](#): > > > > Hmm. Why is there a big blank spot over West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana, between the Erie and Shawnee?. > > Look at the map key. There’s insufficient information to identify which groups were there. Such maps are mostly based on accounts of the first European explorers, who recorded the tribal affiliations and languages. Sometimes the information wasn’t recorded. In some areas, like in south Florida, the groups disappeared before enough of their language had been recorded to classify it. (The Seminoles are not mapped, because they originated after the arrival of Europeans, largely as refugees from other tribes.) It’s funny, in junior high school, we had a mandatory year of Ohio history, and the maps showed seven tribes taking up roughly equal portions of modern-day Ohio–(1) Delaware (Leni Lenape), (2) Shawnee, (3) Miami, (4) Wyandot, (5) Ottawa, (6) Huron, and (7) Erie. No map I can currently find matches what we were taught back then. I wonder whether it’s because our Ohio history book chose a very specific time period that’s not of interest these days or whether the scholarship was superseded. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/59 "2020-09-18T19:17:57Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It’s funny, in junior high school, we had a mandatory year of Ohio history, and the maps showed seven tribes taking up roughly equal portions of modern-day Ohio–(1) Delaware (Leni Lenape), (2) Shawnee, (3) Miami, (4) Wyandot, (5) Ottawa, (6) Huron, and (7) Erie. Some tribes were known by multiple names. For example, the Wyandot according to some sources are known as the Huron. (A tribe’s own name for themselves often means something like “The Human Beings.” Since Europeans often encountered their enemies first, and learned their name for them, the name they’ve become known by means “The People Who Eat Shit.”😉 ) Also, tribes moved around, merged, or disappeared. And Europeans first encountered them at different times. The eastern tribes were largely destroyed or altered before Europeans first encountered some of the western tribes. The culture and probably the territories of the Plains tribes changed drastically once they acquired horses from the Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946/60 "2020-09-21T10:38:07Z")
Is it just me or do most of these maps suck? They came up with a gimmick each and half the time the gimmick is wrong. There’s literally a map that has COUNTRIES THAT LOST TO VIETNAM with America being the only country said to have lost, except for you know, France maybe? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-maps/916946.md?page=4)