It was in the year 1793 that Captain James Colnett of the Royal Navy set sail in the merchant ship Rattler to do a survey of the Galapagos Islands to investigate the possibilities of sperm-whale fisheries in the region. Colnett’s Chart of the Galapagos is the first fairly accurate map of the archipelago. It was […]

Straddling the California-Nevada border, Death Valley National Park occupies a desert valley area between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts. It is the hottest and driest place in America, and the lowest of all the national parks in the lower 48 states. Covering 3.3 million acres, this park features salt-flats, mysterious rocks, sand dunes, […]

The Grand Canyon became a National Park in 1919 and is undoubtedly one of the world’s natural wonders. Situated in Arizona, the park is 277 miles long, roughly 18 miles wide and has a depth of more than a mile. The Grand Canyon is carved by the Colorado River and features layered bands of red […]

It was in the year 1793 that Captain James Colnett of the Royal Navy set sail in the merchant ship Rattler to do a survey of the Galapagos Islands to investigate the possibilities of sperm-whale fisheries in the region. Colnett’s Chart of the Galapagos is the first fairly accurate map of the archipelago. It was […]

Vilas County has the most lakes of all the counties in Wisconsin, with 563 named and 755 unnamed lakes that covers roughly 93,889 acres. It is also home to one of the largest collections of freshwater lakes in the world. Lac Vieux Desert Lake in Phelps is the largest of the Vilas County lakes. These […]

This hand-painted map, Hawaii, 1906, is derived from the work of John Bartholomew of Edinburgh, Scotland. Bartholomew was a cartographer, as well as a map and atlas publisher, who emerged from a renowned line of map-makers that created the map-making business that was known as John Bartholomew and Son Ltd. Along with his brothers, Peter […]

The Lake Keowee region supports a diverse flora and fauna. Aquatic plants include alligatorweed, coon’s tail, waterweed, while common species of trees comprises bald cypress, water tupelo, red maple, sweetgum, water ash and water oak. An abundance of fish can be found in Lake Keowee, including carp, spotted sucker, redbreast sunfish, silver redhorse, spottail shiner, […]

The map “Na mokupuni O Hawaii Nei,” published in 1837 by Kulanui Lahainaluna, Maui is the first separate map of the Hawaiian Islands published in Hawaii and the first Hawaiian-language map of the islands. It is the work of Simona P. Kalama, who engraved and drew the map. Kalama was a top student engraver at […]