"Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, `When I grow up I will go there.' ... But there was one yet--the biggest, the most blank, so to speak-- that I had a hankering after.
-Marlow from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
I was that chap. I remember pouring over the maps that came in our subscription to National Geographic. There were blank spaces in the world’s most remote places. But I was living in those blank spaces. For my elementary school years I was living on the Arabian Peninsula. There the big unknown was the Rub’ al Khali or Empty Quarter. It is the world’s largest sea of sand, about the size of France, and described as, ”It is very still, with the silence which we have driven from our world.” - Sir Wilfred Thesiger. As one of the most extreme environments it is still rarely traveled and even so only on the edges. My boyhood curiosity was only piqued when asking if we could go, the idea was dismissed, as the area is untravellable, roadless, inhospitable, only known to the Bedouin who can navigate from oasis to oasis through a region without fixed landmarks. Surely you would be instantly lost. This was not an valid argument for a seven year old, only more reason to tempt fate by stepping into the blank spaces of the map.
We did some traveling in the desert. It was relatively safe and calculated but still very adventurous. The world was a much bigger place in the 70’s. But it was rapidly shrinking. The camel was being replaced by the white Toyota (sometimes Datsun or Mitsubishi) pickup. The best image was an overloaded pickup with a smug camel riding in the bed. We had a Toyota station wagon. It was a great family camping car which would occasionally get stuck in soft sand. Our friends drove Toyota Land Cruisers or Chevy Blazers, so had no trouble getting us unstuck. The best vehicle recovery was watching a Toyota pickup with six guys in the bed get stuck in deep sand. The passengers jumped out, rocked the truck side to side, and voila the truck drove out. Everyone laughed and cheered and they were on their way. Our desert excursions were my Rub’ al Khali.
From the Middle East we moved to Brasilia, Brazil, the new capitol. A planned city, built in the geographic center of the country. It is the Plano Piloto, the pilot’s plan. In the shape of an air plane, the wings provide apartment neighborhoods with commercial centers, open green spaces for recreation, and efficient roadways for public and private transportation. The fuselage contains the government and banking buildings. The land forward of the plane’s cockpit contained the world’s embassies and consulates, as well as individual family homes. The Districto Federal (DF, Federal District) sits on the great elevated plain of the Mato Grosso, in Minas Gerais. The city was planned here in part to fill in this blank spot on the South American map, to bring infrastructure otherwise concentrated along the Atlantic coast, to the country’s interior. Of course the draw to the north is the Amazon River Basin. But just as with the Empty Quarter, my pleas to visit were shut down do to the dangers of the unknown.
Now I live in the Great Basin. And the world is much smaller. There are fewer blank places, if any, on the map. But there is everything to inspire one’s imagination. As in the Heart of Darkness, “there was one yet--the biggest, the most blank, so to speak-- that I had a hankering after.” This led me to Richard V. Francaviglia’s Mapping and Imagination In the Great Basin. I picked up this book at the California Trail Interpretive Center outside Elko, NV and read it immediately.
Francaviglia gives an introduction to cartography before diving into the history of mapping the Great Basin. It reads like the first lectures of a college geography course. I took Cognitive Mapping my first quarter in college from a goofy professor who opened his biography with a slide of Snoopy as Joe Cool. Cognitive mapping got recognition by Francaviglia in his discussion of indigenous mapping of the Great Basin. The “intuitive” mapping within a primary oral culture relies on the relationship between the people, their land and history. Francaviglia reflects on the European disconnect between geography and history. An essay on the area around the Blue Wing and Sahwave Mountains, The Nuumu Blue Wing Trail, found in the Friends of Nevada Wilderness’ Bluewing Wilderness Additional Resources, discusses the indigenous trail between Lovelock and Pyramid Lake. We should think of the trail as a path between the two areas but as a transformative journey that may include a wide swath through the region. The first maps that included the Great Basin were drawn from the oral histories of early Spanish entradas from the know margins. Preconceived notions of geography and hydrology created fabled rivers, cities, and mountain ranges that persisted for centuries of exploration.
Francaviglia includes a wonderful reading list as well as online resources for exploring maps in his introduction. The one I found myself using the most was the Library of Congress for individual maps and rare documents on exploration. Mapping, exploration, and blank spaces cannot be separated from colonialism, manifest destiny, and capitalism. Francaviglia encourages looking at maps over time while keeping in mind the context and purpose of the maps. Just as any great trip inspires the next, I came across Susan Schulten’s A History of America in 100 Maps while diving into this topic. I am looking forward to this read as well as Francaviglia’s Believing in Place, A Spritual History of the Great Basin this winter.
I have a map on Google Maps of where my rides have taken me. My eyes are drawn to the blank spots without pins. My eyes are drawn to the white spots on the map. Those are dry playa lake beds. One of the common surprises I have when riding through a region that appears monochromatic or boring from a satellite photograph yet turns out to be a dynamic landscape. What motivates me the most is, regardless of the world shrinking the Great Basin remains my Terra Incognita.
Select References:
Richard V. Francaviglia
Lets Keep Some Digital Blank Spaces on the Map - Sierra Club
Map Room - my travel map of Terra Incognita (needs a little updating)
September in Review
September was a full month with 4 trips, Burning Man, Paradise Valley Bikefishing with Doug Artman, Rides with Friends #6 Massacre Ranch - Upper High Rock Canyon, and Trego - Seven Troughs - Lava Beds with Marc Pfister. I had a couple of day trips, one to pre-ride the RwF trip and the other to ride Leviathan Mine Road with Doug A. All of these have to be written up for Bikepacking Northern Nevada. In case you missed it, I posted the Perseids Meteor Shower Campout and Doug’s and my Bikerafting Trip on Stampede Reservoir.
Upcoming Calendar
It is that time of year to start planning for the next year. There will be a long Fall/Winter/Spring in the cold desert.
Oct. 2-3 Pre-ride Black Rock Hot Springs and Micro-Playa Loop
Oct. 14-15 Rides with Friends #7 Black Rock Hot Springs and Micro-Playa Loop
Oct. 16-? Great Basin Loop with Doug A.
Thank you for supporting my storytelling. This is my 9th newsletter since starting here on Substack. These essays never start with a clear plan of what I am going to write so they take me on an adventure of their own. Your feedback and comments are a favorite part of this experiment. Next month I will be sharing Nevada’s abandoned railroads.
I wish I could get out to the places you travel to; I’ve always enjoyed the times I was able to travel with someone back of the beyond, but I have obligations…and an awareness of the need to have resources and other folks with you traveling lots of these spots.😉
I still watch for times I can go traveling backcountry with someone. Nevada open spaces are special for how they affect the mind, when looking around you. Timeless.
Thanks for the reading suggestions, I’ll be looking those up!