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Unpopular opinion: 19th century maps are way more fun to read than modern ones
I spent 3 hours last night trying to follow a route on an 1850s map of the Oregon Territory, and half the towns don't exist anymore. Why do we strip all the character out of maps today, has anyone else found an old map that made you question everything about your local geography?
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the_angela1mo ago
That old map thing is spot on. Actually read somewhere that 19th century cartographers used to add fake towns and roads to catch copyright thieves, like little trap streets. Makes you wonder how many places on that Oregon map were just copy protection nonsense. Modern maps sanitize everything down to clean lines and gray boxes, totally stripped of the chaos that made the old ones feel alive.
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the_kai1mo ago
@the_angela So did those fake towns ever cause real problems for people using the maps?
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