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Sure, the outdoors column that Bob Duchesne wrote for the BDN about the fabled and functional Maine Atlas and Gazetteer is originally from 2021. But that column, like the gazetteer itself, really is timeless.
“The atlas is so ingrained in Maine culture that a car feels empty without one,” Duchesne wrote in his oh-so-relatable piece. “Sure, nowadays there are GPS devices and apps that modernize direction-finding, but there’s still a comfort in leafing through the pages of an old-fashioned atlas. Torn pages and coffee stains testify that its owner has actually gone somewhere.”
And how many places there are to go. With its 70 grids across the entire state, the gazetteer is an invaluable tool for planning and accomplishing adventures across Maine, or simply getting around unfamiliar areas. That remains especially true in the many parts of the state without great (or any) cell or internet service. Navigating a trip to Katahdin in grids 50 and 51, or Gulf Hagas in grids 41 and 42, immediately come to mind at the moment as just a couple of examples.
With all the technological capabilities and apps that come with both new cars and new phones these days, you might be lulled into thinking a collection of hard copy maps could be a bit obsolete. But in this, you’d be wrong. Some of Maine’s most rural areas are simultaneously home to some of the best adventures and some of the worst connectivity. You might never need a paper map, until you do, and then it can really come in handy. Plus, an electronic voice and map can’t replace the topographic and other details included in the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer.
There may have been no better indication of the gazetteer’s persistent utility than the Maine public’s reaction when people feared it might disappear. But thankfully those fears, which materialized as Yarmouth-based mapmaker DeLorme was sold to Swiss GPS company Garmin, went unrealized. Garmin decided to keep the series for all 50 states in 2016.
And what a relief it was.
“For many adventurous Mainers, that book of maps has served as a nearly magical tool, making sense of rural logging roads and rural byways that crisscross the state,” former BDN outdoors writer John Holyoke wrote in February 2016. “It’s safe to say, in fact, that with a DeLorme’s gazetteer at your side, you could ‘get there from here, after all.”
Troy Bennett wears many hats here at the BDN, including songwriter. And he certainly put those skills to use when he delivered the musical gift of “Keep Your Hands Off My Gazetteer” in 2016.
“I don’t care how many satellites are whizzing around in space. All them high-tech gizmos could never take its place,” Bennett sings. “‘Cause it’s the thing that shows us just who and where we are. And it’s waiting for adventure in the back of every car.”
It is this cultural and functional role that has helped keep the Maine gazetteer relevant in 2016, 2021 and still today. And we expect that to be true for many years to come. Happy adventures, and don’t forget to bring that torn, coffee-stained guide along for the ride.