vintage geography trivia

[lonewolf]

Howze bout Tombigee River/Mobile Bay as west limit of Florida?

[gh]

I don't think anybody realizes how large (massive) "Florida" was at the time.

[gh]

I hasten to add that I was among those who didn't realize, which was the whole purpose of my turning it into a trivia ("trivia"?) question after I saw the map.

[lonewolf]

Since the map predates the Louisiand Purchse and the border is not the Mississippi
River, the next logical geographic barrier is the Rio Grande River.

[gh]

Rio Grande is correct for the West.

Now what about the North and the East that isn't ocean-bound?

[lonewolf]

For the eastern border of Florida. I recall from researching geneology of my Choctaw/Creek ancestors that there was a broad band of seaboard above Florida in present day Georgia,the Carolinas and Virginia. I do not know what this coastal Tidewater strip was called but the common notation was that the tribes were displaced south and west from Carolina in the late 1600s.

My gggggrandfather "married" a daughter of Chief Buie(Bowie) and all of their seven children married within the somewhat co-mingled tribe. I believe Buie was aCreek chief but my grandfather, born in Mississippi in 1870s considered himself Choctaw.

For the northern border, I believe everything north of the Ohio River was either Canada or New France.

[gh]

OK, let me wrap this puppy up. Wolf is pretty close with his Ohio River guess for the north,although it's actually south of that. I see no logical reason for the line, which looks to be about 38.5 N (40N is now the border that separates Nebraska/Kansas, Iowa/Missouri, etc). Doesn't follow any body of water. The Eastern border is the Appalachians.

Here's the map, which I find utterly fascinating.


http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=1005#.UPLVN6X5GkA

[Master Po]

Thanks for this thread, gh. Interesting stuff.

[Conor Dary]

Interesting how accurate the map is considering it was nearly impossible to determine longitude at that time.

[lonewolf]

The map is amazingly recognizable.. the northern border of Florida is not well definined, just kinda wiggles west.
Interesting the map shows Apache country to be north of New Mexico, which it was before they migrated south.. but has the Caddo accurately located in present Louisiana and East Texas. .. map also predates southward migration of Comanche from Wyoming to the South Central plains, which they dominated from late 1700s to late 1800s.

[Pego]

Thanks for this thread, gh. Interesting stuff.

Yes, this thread rules.

[gh]

it's a pity that the resolution afforded on the onscreen version doesn't make for reading of some of the smaller notations.

using a jeweler's loupe, I find gems like this, running along the top right, near the northeastern border: "the road the French take to go to Carolina." For a good portion of it, it follows the Acansea River. (I could turn this into more trivia, but I won't)

with googling, I discover that Acansea was what the French called the Ohio, and is from the word that led to the formation of both Kansas and Arkansas.

<<The spelling of the term [Arkansas] represents a French plural, Arcansas, of a name applied to the Quapaw people who lived on the Arkansas River; their name was also written in early times as Akancea, Acansea, Acansa (Dickinson, 1995). This was not the name used by the Quapaws themselves, however. The term /akansa/ was applied to them by Algonquian speakers; this consists of /a-/, an Algonquian prefix found in the names of ethnic groups, plus /kká:ze, a Siouan term refering to members of the Dhegiha branch of the Siouan family. This stem is also the origin for the name of the Kansa tribe and of the state of Kansas; thus the placenames Arkansas and Kansas indirectly have the same origin. [William Bright, "Native American Placenames of the United States," 2004]>>

[tandfman]

Allez Dos de Rasoir!!!!

[gh]

I need to shave my back?!

[tandfman]

Go Razorbacks!