Spent 4 HOURS trying to find a fake island on an old map... turns out it was real

Last week I picked up this old 1800s map of the Pacific at a garage sale for $5. The seller swore it had a phantom island on it, some place called "Sandy Island" that was supposedly drawn by mistake. I spent a FULL afternoon staring at it, comparing it to modern satellite images, getting all frustrated because I couldn't spot anything that looked fake. After like 4 hours of zooming in and cross-referencing, I finally realized the island I thought was real was actually the fake one. My buddy walked over and laughed, said "dude, that island was debunked in 2012 by scientists." So I spent 4 hours proving I have zero map reading skills. Anyone else get tricked by a map that turned out to be more legit than you thought?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_murphy364d ago

At least you got your money's worth out of a five dollar map with four hours of entertainment.

oscar_hunt614d ago

Did they say why the original cartographer put it there in the first place, or was it just a straight up mistake that got copied over and over?