Found a map from a gas station in Arizona that had Alaska floating near Hawaii

I stopped at a little gas station outside of Flagstaff about two weeks ago to grab a snack, and on the wall they had a big map of the United States. I thought it was just old, but when I looked closer, Alaska was drawn as a separate island way out in the Pacific near Hawaii. Not even close to Canada or anything. I asked the guy at the counter if it was a joke map, and he said it came with the building when they bought it 20 years ago. I snapped a picture and sent it to my buddy who teaches geography, and he laughed so hard he nearly choked. Has anyone else seen a map that just completely ignored basic geography like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

eva_lewis7d ago

Oh man, that's actually kind of amazing. I love when you find stuff like that out in the wild, just a total artifact of someone's weird decision making. I mean, it's not like Alaska is some tiny state you could accidentally misplace, you know? It's huge. The fact that they just plopped it near Hawaii like a stray island is honestly kind of funny in a sad way. Idk, maybe the original map maker just gave up halfway through and figured nobody would notice. I'd be tempted to buy that map off them just to hang it in my garage.

jade477d ago

Not to nitpick but Alaska actually is a pretty big state size wise, so them treating it like some random little island is extra wild lol. The guy who made that map must've just sketched whatever popped into his head.