I’ve been perusing the archives and came across entries on “copyright traps” and “false entries” in various publications. No one mentioned a trap I found the hard way: a “map trap.”

The company I worked for printed the official state map for many years and each year the state tourism director’s office would submit changes for us to incorporate in the next printing. My job was to mark up a “dummy,” a copy of the map with all the changes noted for the preparer to use. As a result, I learned a lot about RI cities and towns, as well as the many landmarks. But, despite driving through the area many times, I could not remember passing through a town called Rockland in northern RI. I was convinced there was a serious error in the map so I drove up one day to check it out.

No Rockland. Just the Scituate Reservoir, the state’s main water supply.

I thought I would be rewarded with a big “atta-boy” when I mentioned this to the tourism director but he impressed on me, shall I say ultra-vigorously, that I was not to mention it to anyone else.

Rockland did exist but it was under fifty feet of water, along with several other mill towns flooded in the early 1900s when the reservoir was filled. The entry was there to trap copyright violators. Big map companies do the same thing and keep the error secret, too.

Which brings up the question, can a state legally prevent its citizens from copying a map compiled using their tax money?

In your map trap trip, proofreader, did you come across any news stories that were either by or about a character allegedly named "Swen Laetsi" ???

That's why you can't believe everything you read.

My favorite story in a national magazine (Discover) was printed in their April edition several years ago. Naked mole rats live underground in Africa and cannot remain on the surface because they cannot regulate their body heat. We had some at the zoo and were thus astounded to read that another species of the naked rat had been found under the ice at the North Pole. According to the article, the rats would generate super-hot body heat which would melt the ice around a polar bear, causing it to fall in and get eaten.

We knew it was a hoax but many readers fell for it, especially since a doctored photo accompanied the April Fool's Day joke issue.

I have heard of such copyright traps on maps, but haven't come across any myself. One I was told of was a much smaller instance, when the map showed two minor roads in the middle of nowhere making a T-junction. In fact, one of the roads stopped at a farmhouse some distance short of the second road.

If that's a copyright trap, it isn't a very effective one. All the accused needs to do is to point out that Rockland used to be there, and was accidentally left in. Better to make up a completely fictional place, and put it somewhere where no one will notice - admittedly hard to do in RI.

I've been told that encylopedias have fake entries for similar reasons. I know someone who read the Encyclopedia Brittanica cover to cover, and was concerned that he knew something that was fake, but didn't know what it was.

Never heard of Swen Laetsi, but it is hardly a new trick. According to Hearst's New York Journal, in the 1890's, Reflipe W. Thanuz (We pilfer the news) died. Pulitzer's New York World duly reported it as well.

If I'm remembering correctly, Pulitzer later planted an anagram for "Hearst a liar" in a news story, and Hearst fell for it.

Rockland was removed from the state map some years later and I wondered what they would use in its place. I soon found "Lincoln Park" on the map, near where I live. There once was such a place but it is a neighborhood now covered by the main airport runway.

Mark Patinkin, a columnist for the Providence Journal, recently detailed his attempts to find another non-existent spot on the state map, although he never suspected a map trap.

Interesting. The 2003-2004 edition, which is the only one I've found online, has both Rockland and Lincoln Park. It shows Lincoln Park on Post Road just north of Airport Boulevard. RIDOT's 2008 map also has Lincoln Park there. And the Scituate map has Rockland.

Are you sure that Lincoln Park hasn't survived in peoples' minds? Remember, Rhode Islanders are famous for giving directions by referring to buildings or businesses that no longer exist - " Turn left where the Apex used to be". I'd guess that 75% or so of the place names on that map have no legal significance - they are just relics of former towns or names of neighborhoods.

It is also odd as a choice for a map trap, because Lincoln Park, to most Rhode Islanders, means the former greyhound racetrack, now slot parlor recently renamed Twin River, which is miles and miles away.

I was stung by a map trap once. I was driving around in a town, when I needed to get from point A to point B. I noticed a large subdivision I could drive through and did so, except at the other end I discovered the small exit I found on the AAA map I was using did not exist. Years later, I happened to be teaching a desktop publishing class in a local adult school when one of my students turned out to be a cartographer with AAA. I immediately asked her how this could happen. Didn't they have editors or proofreaders? She informed me that it was a map trap.

This isn't per se a map trap, but back when "The Bridge to Nowhere" was a political football, I looked up the route on both mapquest and google maps.

For those in the UK: The Bridge to Nowhere was a Federal appropriation for a bridge to connect the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, to the very sparsely populated Gravina Island, presently served by a ferry. Few of the howlers mentioned that Gravina Island, while in fact very sparsely populated, was the site of the local (but international) airport.

According to mapquest, you couldn't get from Ketchikan to Gravina Island. Google's result was n't much better, but was vastly more amusing. It put you on a ferry, but the wrong one. The ferry went many miles south, to a different island, had you wait overnight for the return ferry, and left you in the middle of the water close to the original starting point. Total travel time was over 24 hours for what is a 20 minute trip. Google has fixed it, as has mapquest.

Patinkin was looking for Moscow, which exists on the 2004 official map, as well as on the RIDOT one.

I never use Mapquest's printed directions, only their street maps.

If you want to go to Newport from Providence, there are two routes. One south over the Newport Bridge, a toll road.
Two, north to 195 East into Massachusetts for a few miles, then south on Rt 24 back into RI, about 25 miles. Narragansett Bay splits the state in half, and Mass. residents call RI their state's crotch.

My wife asked MQ for directions and it never mentioned the first, easier route. It told her to take 95 north to Boston, then east to Rt 3, and then some fantastically complicated route to Newport. Boston alone is 40 miles away.

MOSCOW! Right! I couldn't think of it.

We definitely don't have that city but we do have Jerusalem and Wyoming.

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Which brings up the question, can a state legally prevent its citizens from copying a map compiled using their tax money?

Absolutely. I can't host a bazaar on the grounds at Smith Hill, nor can I play basketball in the high school gym in Central Falls. I'm sure there are better examples.

Maybe we should ask Buddy.

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We definitely don't have that city but we do have Jerusalem and Wyoming.

Ah, but you don't. Rhode Island has 39 cities and towns, listed here. No Jerusalem (nor its neighbor Galilee), no Arctic, no Wyoming, and certainly no Rockland or Lincoln Park.

Those are officially-designated political areas over a certain size. Jerusalem was and is a small fishing area in southern RI and Wyoming can be found southwest of Coventry. My brother-in-law has his boat anchored off Galilee, and Arctic is part of West Warwick. (How did those last two come up?) Sorry I can't be more precise but I don't have a RI state map available.

For more information on Rockland, go to http://www.scituateri.org/ Part of this site notes:

In 1915, the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to take 14,800 acres of land in Scituate (38% of the town) to create a reservoir to supply fresh water to greater Providence. This project resulted in the condemnation of "1,195 buildings, including 375 houses, seven schools, six churches, six mills, thirty dairy farms, eleven ice houses, post offices, and an electric railway system, the Providence and Danielson Railway system". (2) The hamlets of Kent, Richmond, Rockland, South Scituate, Ashland, Saundersville, Ponaganset and parts of North Scituate and Clayville disappeared forever.

As I said, Rockland is under water; Lincoln Park (not to be confused with the former RI LP race track, which is now a casino, or the Mass. LP, which is a defunct amusement park) is a neighborhood now under the runway. Both were on maps previous to the '90s, but I haven't seen the offical map since MQ came on-line, and can't be certain they are still listed.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Proofreader,

I know all those places exist, sort of. But there are only 39 legal entities - towns and cities - of any size in Rhode Island. Everything else is just customary, or historical.

I brought up Galilee because of its proximity to Jerusalem, and Arctic because I've always been amused by the name.

All of the place names mentioned by either of us are shown on the 2008 RIDOT maps - links above - and also on the 2003-2004 Official State Map - also linked above.

Just for the heck of it, I tried to get directions, via Google maps, from Cranston to the places mentioned. Lincoln Park, in Warwick, was no problem. Rockland was, though it did suggest a Rockland Road, in North Scituate.

There are at least 4 US cities or towns named after people - first and last names. How many can you name?

Complete first and last names together? As in George Washington, Arkansas? Or ust one name, like Jefferson City, Mo?

There's a George Washington, AR? If so, there are at least 4 more.

That's what I meant, yes. And St. Louis doesn't count.

98824

And ... we have not yet found the ZIP Code for No Name, CO

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

That's NOT what I meant. Is there also a Martha, Washington?

I don't think that question is properly worded. Offhand, I can think of at least two places named for Lincoln, one in RI, as well as Jefferson City. And of course Massachusetts actually has two towns named for a former governor --- Peabody and Marblehead.

Quick thinking, Jerry.

There are literally thousands of cities and towns which are named after people, famous or not. I'm looking for the few that have as a name, both the first and last names of a person. Like Elvis Presley, Tennessee - but I made that up.

Two are household names. The other two are not.

Which former governor was Marblehead named after? Dukakis?