Milwaukee Supervisor Gets "F" in Southwest Geography

Peggy West, Milwaukee County Supervisor, has apparently never looked at a map of the Southwest United States (beyond Texas).

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal:

In supporting a proposed county boycott of business with Arizona, she said Arizona did not share a border with Mexico. The gaffe was captured by WTMJ-TV (Channel 4).

"If this was Texas, which is a state that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would have to look twice at this," West said. "But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border."

Perhaps she saw the Gadsden Purchase in some history book and thought it was the 51st State...



I wonder how she would hold up in a Geography Quiz vs. Miss Teen South Carolina:



Peggy probably wouldn't come in 3rd place in The Amazing Race!

Via Lost States

UPDATE

Barbara reminded me about Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson and his worry that Guam will flip over and capsize if too many soldiers are stationed there...



And of course, who can forget Sen. McCain's Iraq Pakistan border gaff?

Arizona: Scorpions in Aspic

The State of Arizona has been in the news a bit lately, what with all the talk about how their new anti-illegal immigrant laws might lead to racial profiling by the the Arizonastaatspolizei.

"Show me your papers!"

But as always, where there's politics, there are also maps!



Princess Sparkle Pony has been blogging about his life growing up in Arizona, including map memorabilia.

Lost States Revisited

Back in 2008 I was excited to tell you about a little book about states the might-have-been. Michael Trinklein's Lost States: Real Quests for American Statehood was a small but amusing soft-cover collection of maps and stories about almost-ran states like Franklin, Lincoln and Jefferson (why should Washington get all the love?). Alas, that book is now out of print (sure to become a collector's item). Fear not cartophiles, the author has a new edition of the book, expanded with new maps and new stories, in a beautiful hard cover from Quirk Books.*

Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made it



The cover unfolds into a map poster!

Among the stories told - the proposed State of Navajo:



While the intent was to give the people of the Navajo Nation greater representation, one of the biggest drawbacks would be the elimination of the Four Corners!

Some folks have different ideas on how to divide the Minnesota Territory:



Wiser heads prevailed. (What a barren wasteland West Dakota might have been...)

When rivers change their course, it sometimes takes decades for nations to sort out their borders, creating opportunity:



These stories and maps and more can be found in Lost States. I would love to scan and post more of these maps, but I'm sure Mr. Trinklein and his publisher would object... fortunately, they have started a new Lost States Blog to promote the book, reproducing more of the maps.



More videos from Lost States.

*Full disclosure, the publisher sent a review copy to me, but I would have most certainly purchased a copy if they had not.