Bought a 1940s map of a town that never existed

I was at an estate sale in Salt Lake City 2 months ago and grabbed a weird old map of "Pinewood" for $15. Got home and looked it up online - turns out the whole place was a fake town used for military training during WWII. The map has all these fake streets and landmarks that never existed. Anyone else ever fall for a map that's completely made up?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor.mary1mo ago

Pretty sure Pinewood was a real decoy town though, not just training.

christopher3851mo ago

Tie that into something bigger and you start noticing how much of what we take as real is just made up. Ive got a buddy who bought a whole set of supposedly historical blueprints for a neighborhood in Denver only to find out they were for a model city that never broke ground. Theres old maps of places like "Paper Towns" that cartographers used to slip in to catch copyright thieves. It makes you wonder about all the other stuff we just accept at face value like signs with fake security company stickers or those little plastic boxes on light poles that are actually just empty.