Today I go behind the scenes to show what I saw while reviewing the digital map a page away from Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.
Screen captures come from Excel 2007. Minor edits made using MS Paint.
Other images are sourced as noted.
TL;DR
- Introduction
- Fun with Maps
6. Harmony, PA
5. Avalon, PA
4. Gringo, PA
3. Economy, PA
2. Freedom, PA
1. Mars, PA
- More Mars Madness
- More Mars Madness
- More Fun with Maps
Introduction
The cartographic review of Pennsylvania rolls on, but it approaches its end. This section is approximately one or two screens east of Pittsburgh. It's also a few screens west of Cheesetown because those pages didn't make the cut to be written about in Fun with Maps.
This is part of the section of David Guardia's ride through the state which was never documented. What prompted him to follow this path? As far as he's concerned, it was the route he had to take to reach East Palestine, Ohio; he would have gone there, anyway, although not for the motorcycle maintenance and repair he discovered he needed. In any event, it's safe to say he had been looking at digital (or even paper) maps.
What was he looking at? What caught his eye? What surprises did he find?
While I can't answer those questions for him, I can answer them for myself.
In our physical offline world, the trip would have been shorter and more efficient (not to mention cheaper) had David Guardia used some navigational aid, be it GPS or a Viking Sunstone. It also would have been a much more boring ride for him (and for us as readers).
Maps are a vital part of The GHAWG Universe, both for me as storyteller and for the characters. As much as I want to have scenes take place at certain locations, the ultimate decider is THE MAP: If the location doesn't make sense for the story, then I can't use it for that story. On the other hand, the map may show me a location I hadn't considered before but makes perfect sense both for utility and symbolism.
While reviewing digital maps, there are times I find locations which get me scratching my head and scruff, get me laughing, or even get me wondering "WTF is this??" This post features what I discovered a short distance west of Pittsburgh.
Fun with Maps
As with earlier editions of Fun With Maps, a few places on the map
… I had known about over the years;
… are better known by their more famous alternatives; and
… I just hadn't expected at all.
While it's true that David Guardia jumped over a huge chunk of Pennsylvania after leaving Allentown, that's not to say there was nothing interesting in the digital map. It just means that either
- what I saw didn't fit into the story I had in mind; or
- that I couldn't mold the story to take advantage of what I had seen on the map.
While in Ohio, David Guardia was always going to end up at East Palestine. However, it was by dumb luck that he would end up in Defiance.
This is my fifth look at the 325 mile stretch the story skipped over. Here is the 5th set of discoveries in this section which I had skipped:
Just to remind myself that this map was part of Pennsylvania, I added the label PENNSYLVANIA. Then I highlighted 6 locations. This map isn't directly tied to any other map, so I added the label Kecksburg ▬►► for reference. Here are the 6 locations in reverse order of interest:
6. Harmony, PA
Like Paradise, Harmony is meant to convey a sense of calm and peace. The name is supposed to signify calm and order.
The town of Harmony was founded in 1804 by George Rapp, who had purchased a few thousand acres from Dettmar Basse, who himself had founded nearby Zelienople. Rapp, along with a large group which followed his teachings regarding pacifism and the separation of church and state, fled Wurttemberg, Germany due to religious persecution.
5. Avalon, PA
Avalon is known as the island site of the final battle fought by King Arthur. It's also a model of mid-size car manufactured by Toyota. As for people, singer Frankie Avalon is the most famous person to bear this family name.
As a place name, it's not even the first Avalon I encountered while working on Fun with Maps. New Jersey has its own Avalon, and David Guardia is from New Jersey. So this makes Avalon, Pennsylvania the 2nd Avalon I've seen during this project.
Avalon, located near the Ohio River, is a suburb of Pittsburgh. It was founded in 1874 when a group of nearly 30 property owners decided to separate from Kilbuck Township, which itself separated from Pine a few years earlier. As of 2020 it had a population of around 5,000 people.
4. Gringo, PA
Normally this Spanish word (masculine form "gringo"; feminine form "gringa") means a foreigner from the English-speaking world or Anglosphere in particular, although technically it's a generic term for foreigner. So, in theory, Xi Jingping would be a gringo in Mexico and Giorgia Meloni would be a gringa in El Salvador. Most of the time, it's used to describe people like Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, and Eric Adams.
Did Gringo, Pennsylvania really take its name from the Spanish word (sometimes used as a pejorative)? Actually, no.
Gringo was a boom town founded in the 1880s when oil was discovered in the area. As for how the town acquired its name, there are 2 closely related stories noted in the same source:
[1] Howard Green went with the Nevin girl-, he would always walk fast and they would say, "Look at Green Go," hence Gringo. [2] Also they went into one of the Speakeasy's,- it was so narrow, a fellow got a drink and grinned and went-, so it was called Grin & Go, so "Gringo".
([1] and [2] added to blockquote)
3. Economy, PA
We're used to thinking of "the economy" as if it's some amorphous thing to be tracked by government agencies for who knows what purpose. We forget that we are our own economies: "household management" was the original meaning of this word, which came into English from Greek through Latin. We each have whatever assets and resources we have, and it's our responsibility to manage them as best as we can to get the most out of them.
The Harmony Society, a group which followed the teachings of German emigre to Pennsylvania George Rapp-- founder of Harmony, PA-- founded Economy, Pennsylvania in the early 19th Century. The Harmony Society founded Economy with the goal of setting up a utopian community based in equality, communal living (pre-Marx), and hard work.
It turns out that actual economy was part of the reason for founding Economy, Pennsylvania!
2. Freedom, PA
For many decades, or even two centuries, freedom had the Unique Selling Proposition of the United States. It's one reason immigration to this country is at all time highs even in the face of internal propaganda declaring the country hostile to immigrants. True or not, that's how powerful the promise of freedom is to people.
Freedom, Pennsylvania was founded in 1832 by Jonathan Betz and Stephen Phillips. Betz and Phillips co-owned built steamboats, and Freedom was designed to give preference to the steamboat builders' business. The town was built on 100 acres of land purchased from General Abner Lacock for USD 2,000.
1. Mars, PA
So far we've seen places named after other cities, other states, and even other countries. This is the first time we see a place named after a planet.
Or is it named after the Roman god of war? Or is the place name unrelated to either? Whatever the reason for naming this place Mars, does Elon Musk know about this place?
One theory for naming the town Mars revolves around astronomy. Although the town had been in existence since 1798, it didn't acquire the name until 1873 when the Borough of Mars was formed. According to the theory, Samuel Parks named it Mars in 1873 because his wife was a student of astronomy.
Another theory is less fascinating, yet more widely accepted: it was named Mars to honor Samuel Marshall, one of the people who helped Samuel Parks found the post office in his own home.
More Mars Madness
It turns out that Mars isn't the only "planet" in Pennsylvania. About [55 miles northeast of Mars is Venus]((http://marsborough.com/history/), Pennsylvania.
Taking it even further, here is part of the solar system as memorialized on maps:
| "Planet" | Location | Distance from Mars, PA |
|---|---|---|
| Venus | Pennsylvania | 55 miles (@ 88.5 kilometers) |
| Jupiter | Florida | 925 miles (@ 1,488 km) |
| Mercury | Nevada | 1,875 miles (@ 3,017 km) |
Because of the route taken by David Guardia to get from Allentown, Pennsylvania to East Palestine, Ohio, Venus, Pennsylvania wasn't on screen during my reviews of the digital map.
More Fun with Maps
Given that 325 miles of Pennsylvania roads were crossed without comment in the zapfic serial, I will continue to go back to review the maps to see what David Guardia may have missed on his ride, and what I may have missed
What other place names can I find within this stretch of Pennsylvania? Will I find another place as attention-getting as Cheesetown? Let's find out together as I continue my research and we have more fun with maps.
As more posts in this series are published, they will be added to the pinned post "GHAWGnav: Navigating The GHAWG Universe". Thanks for taking time to see how this part of The GHAWG Universe is being built.
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[!!]See you next time for another edition of Fun with Maps!
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