Map of the Week-Burning Edition

Robert Ayres who created the burning Ponderosa map for Bonanza died recently.

This map is on permanent display at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. Assuming that north is supposed to be up, the map was drawn incorrectly. When Ayres showed the map to series creator David Dortort he said "I love it, but your directions are wrong." Ayres fixed this by adding a compass with north pointing to the left and up. If only all cartographic problems could be solved this way.

Here's the map in action

For your viewing pleasure, here is the intro so you can watch it burn!



Thanks to my wife for the post suggestion and title.

Map of the Week-Fake Countries!

Micronations are small areas with (generally unrecognized) claims as sovereign states. They tend to be left or right wing attempts at secession, tax evasion schemes, jokes or publicity stunts. There is a micronation wiki on wikia, with a list and descriptions. Some are amusing while others are somewhat disturbing and the level of seriousness is not always clear.

The microfreedom page has descriptions, flags, links to websites and this map. There is also helpful information and warnings for anyone interested in starting their own country.

Here is a detailed view of some of the micronations of North America. The map and country lists do not completely agree.

I have not carefully researched the details of each county but the republic of Molossia has a good website with some interesting details about it's wars with Mustachistan and East Germany.

As this map shows, Mustachistan has made some pretty bold land claims so you can't really blame Molossia for challenging them.

Below are maps of the Battles of Lake Jean and Rattlesnake Rift during the War with Mustachistan. Why two Nevada area republics fought a battle (Lake Jean) in a Pennsylvania State Park is a long story but if you really want all the details follow the links above.

MOTW #91 - Lake Tahoe Fire Risks

The Sacramento Bee had an article this past summer with a nice map illustrating how much building is going on in high risk areas for forest fires. The red are areas of high fire risk and the black dots represent building permit locations.