I found this tool six years ago and meant to post it but forgot until now. Fortunately it still works and is still pretty cool. You can click anywhere in the United States and trace the path of a raindrop to the ocean. I chose a random point northwest of White River City in western Colorado.
River Runner is a tool from Sam Learner, a graphic journalist from the Financial Times. After it loads, you will get a fly through video tracing the raindrop's path. Here it is flowing down the Green River after passing through "Unnamed River" then Crooked Wash and then the White River. The red on the full USA map marks where you are at any given moment in the fly through.
Here is the river as it approaches the Grand Canyon,
and here it is in the agricultural landscape along the Arizona-California border.
Unfortunately since this river goes into Mexico before flowing into the sea, the path is detained at the border (this is no longer true see update below). To see an example of a river's mouth here is the Mississippi flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Don't expect a precise level of detail. I clicked at my house and it picked a point about a mile away where the flow to the nearest river is a bit different from where I am. It also got the name of a nearby lake wrong. Go here to see your local journey.
UPDATE: River Runner is now a global phenomenon! You can now cross borders and go anywhere!
I love the wavy lines and details showing ideal wind and swell directions, coordinates, shark sightings, etc. The hand drawn details on the land are also very nice.
The company is named for Malin and Mizen Head, the northernmost and southernmost points in Ireland. Here you can see North Malin from the Irish Surf Map.
They make maps for different sports, history and beer and wine. Here is part of the Irish Pub Map. The x indicates where hot food is available.
Here is some detail from the California Vineyard Map, the letters indicate grape types and the other symbols are for visiting and tasting information.
There are also many swimming and golf maps.
Other surf maps include Australia with its varied topography. Kangaroos and ostriches dot the land.
Is this a map, a landscape painting or a beautiful piece of propaganda?
This panoramic map was produced at the beginning of the 1900’s in London by W. H. Payne for Letts, Son & Co., a British stationary and map seller. The perspective is from a hilltop in British India, now Pakistan, overlooking Afghanistan. Two British soldiers in the foreground are looking out over Kandahar and other lands yet to conquer. In the far distance, along the Amu Darya (once known as Oxus River) lies the boundary of Russian territory.
The Great Game was an 18th Century rivalry between the British and Russian Empires. This map was produced in that milieu with both sides vying for control over central Asia. The British aimed to create a protectorate in Afghanistan to prevent Russia from having access to the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Sea. Eventually borders were agreed upon but not entirely as seen below. The line along the western frontier is boundary of Persia, now Iran.
The dominant mountain in the far distance looks a bit fanciful but may be inspired some of the peaks around Azhdar National Park.
After failing to conquer these lands the British eventually settled for Afghanistan as an independent buffer state between the empires.
TheUnited States Disappeared Trackeris a new Tableau visualization from Danielle Harlow. It shows where people have been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
This map is part of a dashboard that “visualizes person brought into ICE custody when the trump Administration has demonstrated undeniable political motive/animus and/or the person has been denied appropriate due process, even if the charges are eventually substantiated in a court of law.“
Being a dashboard, there are also charts and lists of the disappeared.
You can also hover over the map for details on some of the incidents.
The data sources are not clear but 370 people just in Massachusetts?
Semiquincentennial is a word we will be hearing quite a bit over the next few years as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. The Revolutionary War’s 250th anniversary will be marked on April 19th of this year. On that day in 1775 British forces exchanged gunfire with local militia in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts while attempting to seize munitions stored by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, an alternate government set up by colonist outside of Boston. These skirmishes became full scale battles forcing the British to evacuate back to Boston.
This map is literally close to home for me as I live along the route.
The map above is from theUS Armywhich will also celebrate its semiquincentennial this year.
The route through Lexington and Concord, known as the Battle Road is where thousands of Colonial and British troops fought a bloody battle on that day. This area is now known asMinute Man National Historic Park. The park’s web site provides a niceinteractive mapwhere you can click around the various historic sites within.
To see the upcoming commemorations and related events visitRevolution 250online.
This bird-eye diagram of lower Manhattan appeared in aHarpers Magazinearticle from 1908 titled “The Story of a Street.”
In 1844 the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam ordered the town’s citizens to construct a cattle guard at the north end of the settlement to keep the cattle in and the Indians out. Lower Manhattan, beforeland fillingwas much narrower than it is today. The cattle guard may have stretched all the way from the East River to the North (now Hudson) River but at a minimum extended from Pearl St to Broadway, covering most of this distance.
The original guard was likely made of trees that had been cut down and piled up. There were approximately two hundred houses within this enclosed area. After some peaceful years, the administration began to feel more of a threat from the Indians and the British. A wooden fence was ordered built about 40-50 feet south of the cattle guard, along the southern line of what would become Wall Street. There were two gates in the wall to allow for commerce, one at Broadway and another at Pearl St.
A couple of years later, seeing how much of the wall had been chopped down by residents for firewood, the barricades were rebuilt. This did not stop the British, who came by sea and were welcomed by many residents after suffering much misrule from the Dutch. As the city grew and wall maintenance costs mounted, pressures mounted to take the wall down. Real estate speculators built lots to the north and finally, in 1699 New York ceased to be a walled city.
Some interesting items from the map include the Bowerie (Bowery), an antiquated Dutch word for farm that was north of the cattle guard and the Heere Graft canal, now Broad Street. The cattle guard was interrupted by this canal.
Unrelated side note:I hate self promotion so I regret to inform you that Map of the Week is now theNumber One Cartography Blogaccording to Feedspot. They even gave me a badge. You can see it on the sidebar but also here it is below.
Their rankings are determined by “relevancy, authority, social media followers & freshness“ so I guess I’m feeling pretty fresh! I know many of the other people on their list and I am quite honored to be among them, let alone ranked above them. Thanks to all you readers for helping make me relevant and fresh!
I was not aware ofKaren Wynn Fonstaduntil a recentarticlefrom the New York Times “Overlooked” series. Overlooked are obituaries about people whose deaths (in this case in 2005) were unreported in the Times. Fonstad created theAtlas of Middle Earthto accompany the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
She had become enchanted with Tolkien’s works. Having studied cartography and completed a Master’s degree in Geography, she pitched the idea of creating an atlas to Tolkien’s American publisher. While Tolkien and his son drew the original maps* Fonstad’s atlas represents a complete picture of Middle Earth during all of its ages and across all of Tolkien’s books. It discusses the geology behind land formations and includes city maps and floor plans or important buildings. Here is a detail of Frodo and Sam’s route to Mount Doom.
Her work was well received by Tolkien fans and scholars alike. To illustrate her impressive landscape details, here is the southern section of the Misty Mountains. They have a nice Swiss Topolook.
Alaska’s famous Iditarod dog sled race concluded last week. Global warming meant the route needed to be moved further north to start at Fairbanks instead of Anchorage.
While not the first time the route has run from Fairbanks, this year’s race was not planned to go along the northern route. The route was abruptly changed due to “low snow” conditions and reports that a challenging section of the trail was “completely bare, down to the dirt and rocks.”
While there was still the ceremonial start in Anchorage, even that had to be shortened from 11 miles to a quick one and a half mile jaunt because there’s no snow on the ground. The snow along the truncated route was brought in from elsewhere and dumped along the course.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a Native American artist died a few weeks ago. Her artwork highlighted a Native worldview juxtaposed with American pop culture and included many maps.
You can see much more of her work on herweb site. I will end withAdios Map(2021), showing different ways to say goodbye - to lives lost in pandemic, land destroyed by climate change among other goodbyes.
Last year I was in Brattleboro, Vermont and saw an interesting map on display. It is part of theBrattleboro Words Project. The project “connects community members to the Brattleboro area’s unique history, the art of audio storytelling - and each other” through audio pieces, maps and a GPS app that leads listeners on an audio journey of local people and places.
There are two maps; a city (above) and regional map. They can be downloadedhere. Indigenous Abenaki names are given equal weight on the map. Examples include the town name, Wantastegok and the river Kwenitekw. Here is a picture zoomed into downtown to appreciate the handmade details.
The regional map features portraits featuring notable people with local ties such as Rudyard Kipling, Saul Bellow andDaisy Turner.
Here is the Brattleboro area.
The process of creating these murals and maps is very interesting. It started with 10 clay landscape mural tiles, about 12 lbs each, 16"x16". They were hand carved by Natalie Blake Studios lead designer Cynthia Parker-Houghton. She was nice enough to share some details of the creation process:
“I took the information for the rivers off a Google Map, which I then re-oriented and then distorted distorted to give a birds eye view. So it was as if seen from the top of Mount Wantasticuit on the NewHampshire side of the Connecticut River gazing out West over Brattleboro and the surrounding region.
"I had this map printed out large at a print shop and then used it as a template to lay out the clay forms to represent the topography of the mountains. After this I draped square slabs of clay over the forms. These slabs then dried for a few days and then could be lifted to remove the clay mountain forms and also the paper templates. I believe I had a second set of paper templates printed which were slightly smaller to adjust for the clay shrinkage. I used this second paper template to mark out the rivers. I did this by drawing over the river lines with a pen which pressed through the paper to leave marks on the clay.
"Once the marks were made I removed the paper template and carved the details of the map. I carved away the iron oxide slip that had been painted over the entire surface. Wherever I carved it revealed the white clay. After we bisque fired the tiles, we used an industrial sprayer to apply the transparent glaze colors over the black and white image. We then fired it for a second time to a high temperature.”
The map was created from photographs of the mural with text added digitally.
Here is a video if you want to dig more into the details of the creation process.
Brattleboro Words is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities. They will be revamping the map for 2026 when the whole Trail will be featured on the new Amtrak station outside track facing side of building.
Ukraine was invaded by Russia three years ago. Since the new president of the United States is in full surrender to Putin mode and wants to blame Ukraine for starting the war, I am posting this map, from February 27, 2022. It is to remind anyone that needs reminding of who started this war.
This one shows what Russia has gained (in red) in three years of war. Much of that area will likely be ceded to Russia if a “peace” deal is made without Ukraine.
Mapping Prejudiceis a project by a team of scholars and activists at the University of Minnesota. The project maps racial covenants, clauses that were inserted into property deeds to keep people who were not White from buying or occupying homes.
The mapping page has an animation that show the growth of these covenants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area from 4 in 1910 to over 32,000 in 1963.
Or you can see all of them with their details. The green color does not stand out great again the gray background though.
There are also some static maps showing racial covenants in the area.This onedoes a good job of showing how they cluster around the Minneapolis city boundaries.
When white people like me write about Black History Month, it can seem quite performative. However, in an era when our “leaders” are trying to erase black history, it is important for all of us to keep it visible. This poem map was inspired by a Langston Hughes poem called “Let America be America Again”, the full text of it can be foundhere.
Last week we lost our dog, Luko (a shortened version of an overly long-winded name he came with.) Lots of people will tell you they have the best dog but he was truly one of a kind. Completely sweet and a delight to all who have known him.
A few years ago I made a colored pencil map of his world. I didn’t think it was very good at the time so I never posted it here. It also was a bit problematic because I used a very light pencil so even after contrast and brightness adjustments, it’s a bit hard to read. The photos were added after the fact and placed close to where they were taken. North is not up on this map, uphill is up. This is dedicated to his memory. Enjoy.
This isn’t a map, though there are small maps embedded, but an awesome graphic using the tree metaphor to detail the spread of languages.
The size of the foliage represents the approximate population of speakers of each language. The graphic contains Indo-European and Finno-Ugric families so while it contains much of the world’s population, it does not include African, East Asian, Middle Eastern or indigenous languages. The author,Minna Sundbergis Finnish so there is extra attention given at the bottom of the map to the Finno-Ugric tree (detailed below) and North Germanic branch of the Indo-European tree.
