Maps: January 2020 Archives
Louisiana Purchase Exposition St. Louis - David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Beautiful color map of the 1904 World's Fair, showing the state, territorial, and national pavilions, Model City, Intramural Railway, connections to steam and electric railways. A massive Philippine Exhibit included a model of Manila's Intramuros walled city, a map of the islands, and a Lantern Slides building. The Pike, an entertainment midway, included such attractions as Creation, Hereafter, Infant Incubator, Scenic Railway, Water Chutes, Boyntons Naval Exhibit, Battle Abbey, Galveston Flood, Old St. Louis, Ancient Rome, and Cairo. A large scale model of Jerusalem's Old City dominates the map. Be aware that South is up, and that the fair's boundaries extended from Oakland on the south to Lindell on the north, and from DeBaliviere / Hampton Avenues on the east to Big Bend Dr on the west.
Official guide to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at the city of St. Louis
The Internet Archive has the official guidebook for the 1904 World's Fair. Page 135 has a photo of the Indian Territory Building and a description of the attractions along The Pike. The entrance to The Pike was graced with Frederic Remington's "Cowboys Shooting Up a Western Town" -- the description sounds like his "Coming through the Rye." On page 138, we learn that the International Olympic Committee has designated all sports and competitions during the World's Fair as Olympic events, with the Olympic games proper occupying one week (Mon-Sat only) from August 29 to September 3. A photo of the Oklahoma Building appears on page 154. The description of St. Louis and its amenities, starting on page 176, is also interesting.
Explore a map of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis
This is an Adobe Flash application, published in 2010, so your browser may complain, but it lets you see how the 1904 World's Fair Map lines up with present day landmarks.
The 1904 World's Fair Society has a page of links related to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service: Fires Near Me
This is an interactive map showing the extent of the burned area and the status of fires in New South Wales and neighboring parts of Victoria and Queensland. Here is the fire map for Victoria, the road closure map for Victoria, and the road closure map for NSW. There are a few contained bushfires and grass fires in Queensland at the moment.
I'm sad to see roads I drove and towns I visited under threat. Three years ago, in October 2016 during the Australian spring, I took a four-day drive that included the beautiful Australian Alps and Murray River Valley. The town of Corryong, Victoria, home to a museum about the times depicted in the poem "The Man from Snowy River," is surrounded by burned areas, and roads out of town are closed to traffic. Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, home to the highest peak on the continent, has been evacuated and the Alpine Way scenic highway is closed through the entire park, from Bullocks Flat to the Murray River on the border with Victoria. The Falls Creek ski resort is under mandatory evacuation. Residents of Bright, a pretty resort town in the foothills of the mountains, are being advised to leave.
