Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Wonderful public lands maps organize knowledge of New Mexico


Map geeks live in Albuquerque's North Valley. Their home is a modest suite in an even more modest one-story brown stucco office building on North Fourth Street. Even the sign for the Public Lands Interpretive Association is modest. Fourth Street is commonly thought to be the route of El Camino Real, or Chihuahua Trail, that connected Mexico with Ohkay Owingeh pueblo, north of Espa-ola. An Albuquerque planning document corrects that "misperception," reporting that El Camino Real had two routes through the North Valley, neither of them Fourth Street.  Maps organize knowledge, which is a great human achievement. Getting things righteventuallyis what maps are for, after all, urban mythology to the contrary.   The "geek" label may be unfair. Still, that was the impression. The website, www.publiclands.org, is thorough, almost daunting. The products are resolutely paper.  The Public Lands Interpretive Association plays a role beyond maps, interpretation and education, thanks to the Internet, I suppose. From the modest North Fourth headquarters, it is a window on the world for New Mexico and the West. That makes the association one of those pockets of excellence we keep forgetting...more

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