Lab 1: 3 Maps

For our first assignment for Geog. 7, we were asked to find 3 maps on the internet that were interesting to us.  Not knowing what I wanted, I entered the term "maps" into Google, Yahoo!, and Bing image searches and picked my favorite from each.

1) Google - American Creation Blogspot 

http://americancreation.blogspot.com/

For my first map, I discovered “Leading Church Bodies, 2000” from the blog American Creation. The goal of this blog is 'promote discussion, debate and insight into the history, particularly religious, of America's founding'. This map gives a breakdown of the most popular Christian religious sects in different counties from around the country. This map can be used to find insights into the religious mindsets of different parts of the country. I chose this map, because it represents not only the religious breakdown of a country that is predominately Christian, but also the political breakdown as well. Many liberal states have either predominately Catholic majorities or have multiple denominations having leads in different parts of the state. However, the more conservative states tend to be located in the Baptist Bible belt or the Mormon Rocky Mountain West.

2) Yahoo! - Yale University

http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/california_tribal.html

For my second map, I came across “California Indian Tribal Groups” with the insert map “California Tribal Linguistic Groups” from Yale University's Genocide Studies Program. The draw of the map is how it shows the many different tribal groups existing in California. I find this map interesting, because when studying American history, the Pacific coast tribes are largely ignored. As far as American history is concerned, there were Native peoples in the Eastern States and Central Plains but nowhere else. These tribes were almost driven to extinction and hunted for sport; the last indignity that they could suffer is to be forgotten by history.

3) Bing - Mental Floss 

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17550

The final map I found comes from Mental Floss, a website that showcases random and interesting facts that you could use to appear knowledgeable at parties. The map is “The Proposed 38 United States of America,” and it is based off an idea that a professor of geography at a California State University, George Etzel Pearcy, came up with in 1973. His idea was with cities within states fighting for most of a state's given revenue, the state lines should be redrawn and renamed so there are a limited number of population centers in a given state. The idea was quite controversial, because it would have been a logistical nightmare. I like this map for two reasons: one, it divides northern and southern California into separate states, which is how I believe it should be; and two, the names of the new states speak to the history of different regions, including the natural landmarks and the tribes that have resided in that area.