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Showing posts with label idaho. Show all posts
Showing posts with label idaho. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

The Top 100 Private Land Owners in the USA

The United States Government owns 640 Million acres of land (about 28% of the country's land mass). Of the privately held lands, 40 million acres (about the size of Florida) are owned by 100 individuals. This map from Bloomberg shows who these people are and where (most of) their land is.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-largest-landowners-in-us/
A zoom in shows you who these people are - a combination of investors, energy company owners, ranchers, media moguls, heirs and various other wealthy people. Here is the Texas Panhandle and northeastern New Mexico,
and southwestern Texas-the blue piece furthest west is owned by Jeff Bezos where one of his companies tests a reusable rocket.
Here are the top 10 landowners with the acreage (in the millions) they own.
Most of this land is in the western half of the country. Here are some holdings surrounding Yellowstone National Park.
There is not much action in the east, except for in Georgia, Florida and Maine where seven families collectively control a quarter of the state's land, including Subway (the restaurant, not the transportation option) co-founder Peter Buck.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Where to See the Best Eclipse Maps

It's not about where to go to see the upcoming eclipse (August 21st, 2017) -it's where do you see the best maps that interests me. The Great American Eclipse site is a good starting point. They feature very detailed maps showing how much time the total eclipse will last.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53c358b6e4b01b8adb4d5870/53eee705e4b0b80451132d74/53eee74be4b0880c7d4f6c09/1408166076430/SouthCarolina_Central.jpg?format=1500w
Above is the area around Columbia, South Carolina where some friends of mine (and possibly me but that is unlikely at this point) are gathering. I'm not sure why they want to drive 30 miles to get an additional 10 seconds of eclipse time but maybe it's better watching it over Lake Murray. Hopefully they get a sunny day-chances are much better of that in Nebraska or Wyoming.

This site features maps of the nation, for each state, drive time maps, videos of the path, lots of highly detailed maps like above and statistics. You can also buy "Occupy Totality" T-shirts. I like their logo too.
Here is a simple nationwide map from the South Carolina State Museum via the Columbia Total Eclipse Weekend site.
http://totaleclipsecolumbiasc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/solar-eclipse-map-2017.jpg.png
The Washington Post has a great page where you can scroll down and follow the eclipse's path. Here are two screen shots of Oregon.
 Also Carhenge, because Carhenge is awesome.
Teams of students under the Eclipse Ballooning Project will be sending up high altitude balloons with cameras across the country to live stream the event. You will be able to watch here.
Rexburg online (Idaho) has a nice simple state map.

You can see where future eclipses will be from Scientific American. Their interactive graphic works nicely for small countries...
...but gets unwieldy for larger ones.
There are probably many other good graphics. You can look up at the sky or look online for more maps. If you are in the USA and you miss this one, there will be another one in seven years. Click the picture for more details.
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024/


Thursday, June 22, 2017

Fifty Fantasy States

Chris Engelsma is working on creating fantasy maps for the 50 states using toponyms - translations of place names to their original meanings. Here is North Dakota , aka Northern Land of Friends.
https://50fantasystates.tumblr.com/post/161750918716/northern-land-of-friends-a-toponymic-fantasy-style
Here is a nice detail from Idaho (Light on the Mountains) showing the light on the mountains
https://50fantasystates.tumblr.com/post/155699376321/light-on-the-mountains-a-toponymic-fantasy-style
10 states are completed. Prints are available on his Etsy page. This also includes his map of Australia.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/520557874/illustrated-toponymic-fantasy-style-map?ref=shop_home_feat_3

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Where Does That River Go?

If you're like me you look at a stream and wonder where it comes from or where it goes. The National Atlas has a new tool called Streamer. Click on a stream and you can trace it up or downstream. Here is the path of Butternut Creek in Charlotte, Michigan to Lake Michigan.
Tracing upstream is much more complicated. You get all the possible tributaries above you. Here's a trace of the Tennessee River near its mouth in Kentucky.
Unlike Streamer, rivers do not care about national boundaries. If you trace the Pend Oreille River downstream from Idaho, you get stuck at the Canadian border in Washington. The river itself only makes a short trip into Canada where it empties into the Columbia and heads right back into Washington but this is not shown in Streamer.
I like a good long windy path like the one made by Cassadaga Creek south of Buffalo. It starts just a few miles from Lake Erie but goes the other way instead.
Or Wyoming's Wind River.
Pick your favorite river (if you have one) and give it a try.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The Newberry Library Part 2

This post is a continuation from last week detailing my recent visit to Chicago's Newberry Library. In the map room was a book of maps of the Oregon Trail. Having gone to graduate school in Lawrence, Kansas near the beginning of the trail, it caught my attention.

The full title is "Topographical Map of the Road From Missouri to Oregon Commencing at the Mouth of the Kansas in the Missouri River and Ending at the at the Mouth of the Wallah Wallah in the Columbia." Produced in 1846 (when the Oregon Treaty settled a boundary dispute with the U.K.) by order of the U.S. Senate, this map is from the field notes and journal of Captain John C. Fremont, and sketches and notes from his assistant Charles Preuss. There are seven sections, above is the first, easternmost section.

I like that Westport, now the place to go in Kansas City to see bands and watch drunk 20 year olds get into fights, was its own little village. Actually, it was probably a much rougher and rowdier place back then. This detailed view came from the David Rumsey Map Collection where you can see the full maps with much better clarity.

The sections feature charts of meteorological observations for sunrise, noon and sunset for each day of Fremont's expedition.These include the temperature, altitude, wind direction and brief weather descriptions such as "perfectly clear" or "occasional thunder and light."

The locations of the expedition for each day are shown on the map, along with "cyphers" listing the distance from Westport. Each section has notes in the corner that provide some good atmosphere and local color. These are from section 1:
This section abounds with grass, water and fuel so that emigrants may encamp almost anywhere.
Elk and deer, the only game, are very scarce.
Selected notes from the other sections provide lessons in geography and attitudes towards non-whites.
Game - Antelope and Buffalo, the latter in innumerable bands.

Timber is extremely scarce, except on the islands*. Some driftwood and buffalo excrement makes the fuel as that of the camels does in the deserts of Arabia.

Good guard ought to be kept. Pawnees, if they do not kill, will at least take what they can from the travellers [sic] by force if they are strong enough, and by stealth if too weak to act openly.

With this section** the prairie ends, and the barren sage (artemisia) country begins.

East and West of this section [section 3] more or less buffalo and antelopes, but 50 miles from Fort Laramie each way no game is to be found. Grass - is scanty and only occures [sic] on the banks of the rivers and creeks.

At Sweetwater River*** buffalo appear for the last time and emigrants should provide themselves with well dryed meat.

West of the Green River the traveller [sic] is considered out of danger, as the Snake Indians are considered friends of the whites. Property however should be guarded.

This is the most trying section**** for the traveller on the whole route. Water, though good and plenty is difficult to reach, as the river is hemmed in by high and vertical rocks and many of the by-streams are without water in the dry season. Grass is only to be found at the marked camping places and barely sufficient to keep strong animals from starvation. Game there is none. The road is very rough by volcanic rocks detrimental to wagons and carts. In sage bushes consists the only Fuel. Lucky that by all these hardships the traveller is not harassed by the Indians, who are peacable [sic] and harmless.
Of course, these notes also provided highly valuable information for emigrants heading west.
 
*     the islands of the Platte River
**   section 2 covering the area between 98 and 102 degrees west longitude along the Platte River. 
***  near the continental divide
**** section 6-along the Snake River between Fort Hall (north of Pocatello)  and Fort Boise in Idaho.



Thursday, March 29, 2012

Random Thursday-Maps You Probably Won't Use Today

Have I mentioned that I don't really care for google (or bing or yahoo) maps? Sure they serve certain purposes very well and I even use them at work when they fit the bill. However, when directing me to your business I prefer a customized map. Here are some examples.

A map to the Kipu Ranch on Kauai where you can enjoy scenic beauty by ramming through it on an ATV.
Directions to Camp del Oro in Nevada City, California. You will probably get lost.


Raffles, an Asian restaurant in Nagoya, Japan. An Asian restaurant in Japan? What an idea!


The Book Loft of German Village - Columbus, Ohio. Absolutely not to scale but emphasizing the important details - and you can't do that in google!


Pasquia Regional Park in Saskatchewan- looks like it was drawn by a kid with cartographic skills.


A very red map of the locations of the Big R Stores in the Northwestern US. I love how the topography ends at the Idaho border!

Here's a map to The Strand - a development in Datarang Sunway, Malaysia. I got the image from Three Meals of Goodness, a Malaysian dining blog. I like the exaggerated earth curvature, and the Ikea.