I finally noticed the Great Lakes were totally wrong on a 1950s map

Pulled out an old map from my dad's basement for a road trip last weekend and realized Lake Michigan was drawn shaped like a football. Has anyone else found a decades-old map with a lake or border that's just completely off?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_king221mo ago

Honestly I used to roll my eyes at people finding mistakes on old maps too. But then I found one from the 1960s where they drew Lake Superior with a big chunk missing on the eastern side. It made me realize these errors aren't just goofs, they show how differently people understood the world back then. Tbh it's kind of fascinating once you look past the "it's just an old map" attitude. Ngl it shifted my whole view on why people get excited about this stuff.

julia_fisher281mo ago

Oh come ON, it's an old map from the 1950s. Maps back then were drawn by hand and they didn't have satellites or whatever we use now. A football shaped lake is barely a big deal. People act like finding a mistake on an ancient map is some huge mystery but really it's just a printing error or the guy who drew it was lazy. I've seen old maps where entire mountain ranges are in the wrong spot and nobody cries about it. Honestly just get a GPS and move on.