Today I go behind the scenes to show what I saw while reviewing the area halfway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Screen captures come from Excel 2007. Minor edits made using MS Paint.
Other images are sourced as noted.
TL;DR
- Introduction
- Fun with Maps
7. Dry Run, PA
6. Concord, PA
5. Mongul, PA
4. Roxbury, PA
3. Scotland, PA
2. Waterloo, PA
1. Cheesetown, PA - More Fun with Maps
Introduction
The cartographic review of Pennsylvania continues. This section is approximately halfway between the famous major league cities of Philadelphia (Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, 76ers) and Pittsburgh (Pirates, Steelers, Penguins, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh).
This is part of the section of David Guardia's ride through the state which was never documented. What prompted him to follow this path is anyone's guess. In any event, it's safe to say he had been looking at digital (or even paper) maps.
What was he looking at? What caught his eye? What surprises did he find?
While I can't answer those questions for him, I can answer them for myself.
In our physical offline world, the trip would have been shorter, more efficient-- and cheaper-- had David Guardia used GPS or some other navigational aid. It also would have been a much more boring ride for him (and for us as readers).
Maps are a vital part of The GHAWG Universe, both for me as storyteller and for the characters. As much as I want to have scenes take place at certain locations, the ultimate decider is THE MAP: If the location doesn't make sense for the story, then I can't use it for that story. On the other hand, the map may show me a location I hadn't considered before but makes perfect sense both for utility and symbolism.
While reviewing digital maps, there are times I find locations which get me scratching my head and scruff, get me laughing, or even get me wondering "WTF is this??" This post features what I discovered shortly a few screens west of the Susquehanna River and the state capital of Harrisburg.
Fun with Maps
As with earlier editions of Fun With Maps, a few places on the map
… I had known about over the years;
… are better known by their more famous alternatives; and
… I just hadn't expected at all.
While it's true that David Guardia jumped over a huge chunk of Pennsylvania after leaving Allentown, that's not to say there was nothing interesting in the digital map. It just means that either
- what I saw didn't fit into the story I had in mind; or
- that I couldn't mold the story to take advantage of what I had seen on the map.
While in Ohio, David Guardia was always going to end up at East Palestine. However, it was by dumb luck that he would end up in Defiance.
This is my fourth look at the 325 mile stretch the story skipped over. Here is the 4th set of discoveries in this section which I had skipped:
Just to remind myself that this map was part of Pennsylvania, I added the label PENNSYLVANIA. Then I highlighted 7 locations. This map isn't directly tied to any other map, so I added the label Harrisburg ▬►► for reference. Here are the 7 locations in reverse order of interest:
7. Dry Run, PA
When developers test an application that's usable to see what bugs need to be uncovered and then fixed, it's tested in a lab environment or it goes through alpha testing. Another way to describe such a project in development is to say that the application is going through a dry run.
Dry Run, Pennsylvania is a town in Franklin County. Of the 129,313 people who live in Franklin County, about 767 of them live in Dry Run.
6. Concord, PA
Whether it's the historic site of one of the first battles of the American Revolution in 1775, or its the grapes used to make jelly or jam, Concord is a name recognized by many people. It's also a name many people know is used to name many places throughout the United States.
When it comes to Pennsylvania's Concord, it was given that name because of the harmonious relationship between the European settlers on the 1600s and 1700s with the Native American tribes they encountered there, first of which were the Lenape.
5. Mongul, PA
Although it's spelled differently, this name reminded me of 2 type of Mongols: the steppe people led by Genghis Khan, and the outlaw motorcycle club featured prominently in #GHAWG.
Located in Franklin County, Mongul has a population of about 28,000.
4. Roxbury, PA
Massachusetts has the more famous Roxbury. The place name also brings to mind the 1998 comedy movie A Night at the Roxbury starring Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Dan Hedaya, and a special appearance by Richard Grieco.
The town of Roxbury goes back to 1740. It featured iron mines and forges used to make weapons used by General Geore Washington and the Continental Army for the American Revolution. Roxbury was also a key location for road construction as well as the construction of the Morris Canal in 1827.
3. Scotland, PA
This one was self-evident. It reminded me of too many things, so I couldn't leave this one out of this post. Braveheart; The Highlander franchise; Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott from the Star Trek franchise; J. K. Rowling; Sean Connery; Andy Murray; ....
While looking up information about the town of Scotland, Pennsylvania, I discovered that in 2001 a movie was made whose title is Scotland, PA. This movie is a modern-day retelling of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. It is set in the town of the same name in the 1970s.
The town itself, an unincorporated community located in Franklin County, was named by its founder Alexander Thompson to honor the land of his birth.
2. Waterloo, PA
Although not as famous as Scotland, PA, I ranked it higher because its namesake place is where the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 when it took the combined armies of the other European powers to defeat Napoleon.
Not including this battlefield, located a short distance from Brussels in Belgium, the United States alone has 30 places named Waterloo. The places which come to my mind include Waterloo in Iowa, Indiana, and Ontario in Canada.
1. Cheesetown, PA
Solely for its name I put it at Number 1.
Wisconsin has its Cheeseheads (natives of the state; also Green Bay Packers fans). Pennsylvania has Cheesetown.
Waterloo, PA would have been ranked first here had I not seen Cheesetown on that area of digital map.
What does Wikipedia have to say about Cheesetown, Pennsylvania? I don't know, because the stub page for it is one of the most useless least informative stub pages I've ever seen.
More Fun with Maps
Given that 325 miles of Pennsylvania roads were crossed without comment in the zapfic serial, I will continue to go back to review the maps to see what David Guardia may have missed on his ride, and what I may have missed
What other place names can I find within this stretch of Pennsylvania? Will I find another place as attention-getting as Cheesetown? Let's find out together as I continue my research and we have more fun with maps.
As more posts in this series are published, they will be added to the pinned post "GHAWGnav: Navigating The GHAWG Universe". Thanks for taking time to see how this part of The GHAWG Universe is being built.
This is
[*]See you next time for another edition of Fun with Maps!
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