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Fake Towns

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    • There are other reasons for non existent towns to be on a map. My wife does family history research and had a township Plat map from the 1800s in central IL. It marked who owned eat farms and we were using it to find the location of an ancestors homestead. It was a bit tricky as much had changed, but we eventually found the spot. En route, we founs a town on the map but at that location, it seemed obvious that there had never been a town there. What happen was that the town was drawn up by a developer, hoping to sell lots for his development. But the scheme never got off the ground, so the town was laid out and officially recorded and mapped in the government Plat map with a town name, but never existed. I have seen several of these on old Plat maps.

    • odd man out wrote:

      There are other reasons for non existent towns to be on a map. My wife does family history research and had a township Plat map from the 1800s in central IL. It marked who owned eat farms and we were using it to find the location of an ancestors homestead. It was a bit tricky as much had changed, but we eventually found the spot. En route, we founs a town on the map but at that location, it seemed obvious that there had never been a town there. What happen was that the town was drawn up by a developer, hoping to sell lots for his development. But the scheme never got off the ground, so the town was laid out and officially recorded and mapped in the government Plat map with a town name, but never existed. I have seen several of these on old Plat maps.
      Would you mind sharing the township?

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • Dan76 wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      There are other reasons for non existent towns to be on a map. My wife does family history research and had a township Plat map from the 1800s in central IL. It marked who owned eat farms and we were using it to find the location of an ancestors homestead. It was a bit tricky as much had changed, but we eventually found the spot. En route, we founs a town on the map but at that location, it seemed obvious that there had never been a town there. What happen was that the town was drawn up by a developer, hoping to sell lots for his development. But the scheme never got off the ground, so the town was laid out and officially recorded and mapped in the government Plat map with a town name, but never existed. I have seen several of these on old Plat maps.
      Would you mind sharing the township?
      wow that was probably 20 years ago. Can I reproduce that trip? But what I have now (but not back then) is Google. We were in Tazewell County IL, just north of the river south of Pekin. A Google search oh historic plat maps gave me the 1872 maps I was using. We were looking for a lot near Circleville, in the NE corner of section 1 of Sand Prarie township. Since many of the modern roads didn't align with the old map (and I didn't have a modern map), I was looking for reference points that don't move (rivers, towns, township boundries, etc...) to navigate. When I found the township line, I knew I was on the road that would take me to Circleville. But when I got to the NE corner of section 1, there was obviously no town there, nor any sign of any town. However in this case (again thanks to Google), it seems that there actually was a town there but it disappeared 100 years ago. Not sure if it was ever as large as indicated on the map.

    • I ordered a topographic map back in the 1970s. For an area we were going to hike in. I got back a sepia print map that looked nothing like the area. I looked at the bottom for the date and other info. It was a 1890 map that had been looked at again about 1920. No highways. Just some dirt tracks that were probably used by horse and wagon to get from town to town.

      It did show some small towns that had disappeared since then. There was only foundations and some walls left.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • NoAngel wrote:

      During WWII there were real fake towns. There was one just east of Richmond. The idea was during an air raid they would blackout Richmond and turn on the lights in the fake town so it would get bombed instead.
      Too bad we didn't try that on the War of Northern Agression. ;)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • odd man out wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      There are other reasons for non existent towns to be on a map. My wife does family history research and had a township Plat map from the 1800s in central IL. It marked who owned eat farms and we were using it to find the location of an ancestors homestead. It was a bit tricky as much had changed, but we eventually found the spot. En route, we founs a town on the map but at that location, it seemed obvious that there had never been a town there. What happen was that the town was drawn up by a developer, hoping to sell lots for his development. But the scheme never got off the ground, so the town was laid out and officially recorded and mapped in the government Plat map with a town name, but never existed. I have seen several of these on old Plat maps.
      Would you mind sharing the township?
      wow that was probably 20 years ago. Can I reproduce that trip? But what I have now (but not back then) is Google. We were in Tazewell County IL, just north of the river south of Pekin. A Google search oh historic plat maps gave me the 1872 maps I was using. We were looking for a lot near Circleville, in the NE corner of section 1 of Sand Prarie township. Since many of the modern roads didn't align with the old map (and I didn't have a modern map), I was looking for reference points that don't move (rivers, towns, township boundries, etc...) to navigate. When I found the township line, I knew I was on the road that would take me to Circleville. But when I got to the NE corner of section 1, there was obviously no town there, nor any sign of any town. However in this case (again thanks to Google), it seems that there actually was a town there but it disappeared 100 years ago. Not sure if it was ever as large as indicated on the map.
      In Illinois, it is quite common for towns of up to 1000 people in 1880 to not exist today. Much of it had to do with the change from railroads to highways and from agriculture to manufacture. Also, there was a lot of oil(still is) in Illinois, and there were oil towns that went away when the oil did. Same with railhead towns if the train don't run by there no more(poor poor pitiful me).
      Also, same with lumber mill towns when the trees went away and they put up a parking lot.
      What is interesting to me are the entire towns that disappeared under water for reservoirs...

    • I've read of a SoCal steel mill built at the onset of WWII with buildings camouflaged to blend with the surrounding terrain. Don't know the exact location or whether it's still operative.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • ScareBear wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      There are other reasons for non existent towns to be on a map. My wife does family history research and had a township Plat map from the 1800s in central IL. It marked who owned eat farms and we were using it to find the location of an ancestors homestead. It was a bit tricky as much had changed, but we eventually found the spot. En route, we founs a town on the map but at that location, it seemed obvious that there had never been a town there. What happen was that the town was drawn up by a developer, hoping to sell lots for his development. But the scheme never got off the ground, so the town was laid out and officially recorded and mapped in the government Plat map with a town name, but never existed. I have seen several of these on old Plat maps.
      Would you mind sharing the township?
      wow that was probably 20 years ago. Can I reproduce that trip? But what I have now (but not back then) is Google. We were in Tazewell County IL, just north of the river south of Pekin. A Google search oh historic plat maps gave me the 1872 maps I was using. We were looking for a lot near Circleville, in the NE corner of section 1 of Sand Prarie township. Since many of the modern roads didn't align with the old map (and I didn't have a modern map), I was looking for reference points that don't move (rivers, towns, township boundries, etc...) to navigate. When I found the township line, I knew I was on the road that would take me to Circleville. But when I got to the NE corner of section 1, there was obviously no town there, nor any sign of any town. However in this case (again thanks to Google), it seems that there actually was a town there but it disappeared 100 years ago. Not sure if it was ever as large as indicated on the map.
      In Illinois, it is quite common for towns of up to 1000 people in 1880 to not exist today. Much of it had to do with the change from railroads to highways and from agriculture to manufacture. Also, there was a lot of oil(still is) in Illinois, and there were oil towns that went away when the oil did. Same with railhead towns if the train don't run by there no more(poor poor pitiful me).Also, same with lumber mill towns when the trees went away and they put up a parking lot.
      What is interesting to me are the entire towns that disappeared under water for reservoirs...
      I know of two towns that had to move. Santee NE is right at the upstream end of Lewis and Clark Lake on the Missouri River. When the river began to silt up, the water table rose and the town kept getting flooded so they had to relocate the whole town up the hill. The city of Kiruna in northern Sweden sits on top of one of the world's biggest iron mines and it seems the mining activity had made the ground under the city unstable so they the whole city of over 10,000 people a few miles away.

    • Dan76 wrote:

      I've read of a SoCal steel mill built at the onset of WWII with buildings camouflaged to blend with the surrounding terrain. Don't know the exact location or whether it's still operative.

      yup. I saw a version of that in a documentary. The fake roof looked like suburban homes. Underneath was an aircraft factory.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.