When the township and range mapping system was developed for the vast western expanses of the United States, the giant grid was a much easier way to fix a location in an area of unremarkable and shifting physical features.
It also lead to a county road every mile, north and south and east and west between the sections. So now we have a road within half a mile of wherever we are standing, except in the great deserts and inter-mountain regions.
Some of our land was so designated and
surveyed, but remained undivided because it was deemed unfit for farming,
ranching, or logging.
“To those devoid of
imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most
valuable part.” ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac.
Some of our land was
not given to the railroads as they raced west, because it lay too far away from
the mainline to be profitably developed. That is mostly where our “Designated
Wilderness” lies today: on marginal land far from the cities and
thoroughfares.
But even as remote as it
is, is it wilderness?
One of the best map books I've found is the "Atlas and Gazetteer". They cover an entire state, "Florida Atlas and Gazetteer" for Florida.... It has topographical maps that shows "Jeep Trails", boat ramps, waterways, parks, permitted airports (even the grass strips) and all the roads, not just the highways.
One of the best map books I've found is the "Atlas and Gazetteer". They cover an entire state, "Florida Atlas and Gazetteer" for Florida.... It has topographical maps that shows "Jeep Trails", boat ramps, waterways, parks, permitted airports (even the grass strips) and all the roads, not just the highways.
"Man always kills the things he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are fourty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" -Aldo Leopold
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