Depending on how old you are, you might remember having to pull out a paper map to find your way around a place. Back then, we didn’t have Siri or GPS. We were forced to put on our thinking caps and navigate the world in a slightly more complex way. Or risk getting completely lost. In today’s digital world, more than a billion people use Google Maps every month, but that doesn’t mean physical maps are a thing of the past.
Maps aren’t only used for navigation after all, as this online group proves. It has more than 5.3 million members sharing fascinating maps detailing everything under the sun. From the most overworked countries in the world, to a visual representation of all the lighthouses in France, and even places where cheek-kissing is a common greeting.
We've picked the most intriguing posts from the page, to take you on a journey fit for the most curious of cartophiles. And on the subject of cartophiles, Bored Panda was lucky enough to chat to Ian Wright. He's a map guru and founder of Brilliant Maps, a popular cartography site. You'll find that interview between the images. And as a bonus, we've also included the fascinating story about a fake town that once appeared on a map, suddenly became real, then vanished again.
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Ian Wright is a little bit obsessed with maps. But not the geographical kind. The cartophile and founder of Brilliant Maps tells Bored Panda he’s been interested more in the political, historical and economic sides of maps for as long as he can remember.
“My adult interest was really rekindled when I decided to walk London's Tube map, above ground of course. I found it was a really unique way to better get to know the city. And I also started looking more into what makes the Tube map unique,” he revealed.
Wright says this sparked an idea to start sharing maps he’d found on Twitter, the former bluebird app now known as “X”. Today, his account has more than 129,000 followers and over 16,000 posts. He’s branched out and built a successful business around his passion for maps.
“I initially started sharing maps on Twitter as a way to learn about the platform. At the start it was just fun sharing cool maps I'd seen,” he said during our interview. Wright tells us that after a few posts went viral, he realized that the platform wasn't the best place to include more data or nuance about the posts.
“So I started the Brilliant Maps website as a place to better explain the maps and put them into a wider context,” he said. And that led to him releasing the Brilliant Maps book in 2019.
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Wright says besides the obvious getting us from point A to B, maps are a really useful tool to help quickly explain the world in ways that other forms of visualizations lack. “Unlike charts, graphs, or tables, maps inherently connect data to a place,” he explained. “This allows you to quickly see the difference between places today or the same place over time.”
Wright adds that maps are a great tool for visualizing the world and a great tool for learning about the world. “My kids have both learned about maps at school as a way to better understand the differences between our neighbourhood, city, country and world,” he revealed.
While some believe the digital age might lead to the death of traditional maps, Wright disagrees. “In terms of navigation it's tough to beat Google Maps,” he told us. “However, there's nothing like holding a paper map in your hand. I'm especially fond of historical maps. I recently purchased an original Booth Poverty Map of London and a 16th century map of Brugge, where I lived for a year with my wife.”
Wright says he’s also a big fan of atlases “as you often spot something you never knew you didn't know (unknown unknowns).”
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So where does Wright see the future of maps heading? "I think the sort of maps I publish on Brilliant Maps aren't going away anytime soon, although if AI gets a bit better it may be the one making them!" he told Bored Panda.
"In the real world, I think it's likely we'll likely get some sort of Augmented Reality, where you can ask an AI agent about what you're seeing in real time, better optimize your route based on certain criteria, etc."
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Maps are generally seen as pretty reliable. But you might be surprised to know that cartographers (the people who make maps) sometimes insert fake towns and streets onto them. They aren’t doing this to confuse travelers but rather to catch anyone who tries to forge the map, or infringe on copyright.
The fake places are known as “paper towns” and “trap-streets”. And in a super bizarre turn of events, one of the phantom towns became real for a short while, before swiftly disappearing again.
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In the 1930s, Otto G. Lindberg and Ernest Alpers from General Drafting Co. were making a road map of New York state. They decided to make up a fictitious hamlet called “Agloe”, and marked it on a dirt road, somewhere between Rockland and Beaverkill. The duo came up with the name by combining letters of their own names. The map was printed and that was that… or not.
As it turns out, a well-known map company called Rand McNally created their own New York state map a few years later. They seemingly fell straight into the trap, placing "Agloe" on the same spot as General Drafting Co. had.
Naturally, when Lindberg got wind of this, he mapped out his revenge and took the matter to court, but his rivals warned that he wouldn't win the case. The defendants claimed that “Agloe” did in fact exist. And they had grounds to prove it.
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McNally pointed out that Agloe had a general store, and if Lindberg and his team visited the area, they'd find the shop at the intersection marked on the map. They weren't wrong. Strangely, a shopkeeper had spotted Agloe on a map, and decided to start a business there. This is despite a lack of any surrounding houses or signs of life. Nevertheless, that shop provided enough proof for General Drafting to avoid being sued for copyright infringement.
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Agloe's general store didn't last long. We'd hazard a guess it had to do with a lack of demand. But the whole ordeal certainly put the town on the map, so to speak. Author John Green even mentioned it in his novel Paper Towns. "When its protagonist Margo disappears, she leaves oblique clues as to her whereabouts. The trail leads to somewhere and nowhere – Agloe," reported the Guardian.
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Some maps still feature the little hamlet of "Agloe." It was even visible on Google Maps, until it was removed in 2014. Despite its non-existence, people flock to visit "Agloe", intrigued by the back story of this mythical "paper town". And maybe today, a general shop would be useful commodity on that deserted dirt road after all.
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"Agloe" wouldn't be the only phantom place to appear on Google Maps. In 2009, a place called Argleton attracted camera crews and made headlines. But when reporters visited the "village" near Ormskirk, Lancashire, all they found was... nothing much but a muddy field.
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"I grew up in the area and spotted on the map one day that it said 'Argleton'. But it's just a farmer's field close to the village hall and playing fields. I think a footpath goes across the field, but that's all," said Mike Nolan, the man who originally spotted the village on Google Maps. "The name 'Argleton' is similar to 'Aughton'. Maybe someone made a mistake when keying in the name?"
Maybe. Or maybe Argleton, like Agloe, is simply a paper town in a digital world where people love a good mystery.
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