Maps and GPS: Prologue

My mother, an artist, papered one wall of our cottage in Vermont with contiguous US geodetic topological survey maps from the early 20th century. The entire NorthEast Kingdom is captured in a panel of 6 x 6 maps. I believe that they are or were done every 50 years.

That set was done in brown and sepia tones and are still the most beautiful maps we own. Later ones are green and brown. Functional and pleasant but not compelling.

In addition to beauty, those maps capture a certain snapshot in time as they also show roads, railroads, and buildings.

At that time, my father's family was heavily involved in the granite business and were the founders and principal owners of the Woodbury Granite Company, the largest provider of structural (building) granite in the world (Pennsylvania State Capitol Building, Union Station in DC, and many more).

Using the Woodbury section of that wall map, I can - to this day - find hidden roads, old cellar holes of office and dormitory buildings, the railroad lines, and more. The quarries and the surrounding infrastructure melted away once re-enforced steel muscled granite of the building business and this area was largely abandoned. Consequently, those details have disappeared or become muted more recent maps.

Why my mother - whose family is also from the same area - took on all this as a project based on her in-laws is hard to reconstruct, but it triggered a life-long fascination and with maps and the thrill of hidden discovery. I'm never happier than sitting in the navigator's seat, driving with a detailed area map in my lap.

The arrival of basic street maps on the internet in the early 90's was a revelation. Since then the advances have been dramatic, although still don't allow me the history function that I treasure from those maps on the wall.

Happily most smart phones provide some type of mapping and GPS navigation capabilities, and on platform such as the iPhone / iPod and the Android there are an abundance of apps that leverage these technologies and services to make this general area one of the most compelling and delightful reasons to own one of these devices.

Next: Details