That map of the US that showed California as empty ocean still haunts me

I was at a used bookstore in Portland last fall, flipping through an old atlas from 1998. Page 47 had the entire West Coast drawn wrong, with California replaced by a big blue ocean label. The guy next to me said 'looks accurate to me' and walked off. I still wonder if he was serious or just messing with me. Has anyone else found a map so bad it made you question reality for a second?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery_walker3010d ago

That atlas sounds like a fever dream. Found a map in a thrift store once where Florida was just a bunch of small islands, like the whole state had been hit by a giant blender. The seller tried to say it was a 'creative interpretation' which made it even weirder. Stuff like that makes you wonder how much we just trust random maps without checking. Did you end up buying that dark atlas or leave it there to haunt someone else?

christopher_singh9210d ago

@avery_walker30 I bought it. Couldn't leave it there. It was like the thing was waiting for someone to take it home. The dark atlas had pages with cities in the wrong places. Mountains where oceans should be. One map showed a whole country that doesn't exist. I think the guy who made it just made stuff up or had a bad trip. Still creeps me out sometimes when I look at it.