XNUMX fictional places that are on maps and on the Internet, but do not really exist

If anyone ever offers to meet you in Goble, Ohio, or fly to Listenburg with you, tell them you know the catch, because those places don't exist. Lifehacker.

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The creation of fake places is as old as human history, but some fake places have a life of their own, appearing on maps and other official documents, or encouraging generations of people to seek them out. However, you will never find the 10 places mentioned below except in your dreams (or possibly on Twitter).

Demon Island

Beginning in the 16th century, cartographers mapped a new world, including the ominously named "Demon Island" near Newfoundland and Labrador. It was believed that the island was the home of otherworldly monsters that attacked any ships that dared to pass by. But it's not exactly a fictional place. There were even famous real inhabitants of the island.

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According to the account of the 1542th-century explorer André Theve, in XNUMX the noblewoman Marguerite de la Roque traveled to the Canadian colony and had a ship-borne affair with a sailor. Uncle Rock didn't like it. He left the noblewoman, her maid, and the sailor on the "Demon Island". Margarita gave birth on the island, but the child and the sailor died. She survived by hunting wild animals until she was rescued two years later.

The story seems to have actually happened, but not on the fictional "Demon Island". Marguerite was probably washed up on Quirpon Island or Harrington Harbor. By the middle of the 17th century, as more explorers were mapping North America, Demon Island was quietly removed from the maps.

Listenburg

On October 30, 2022, Twitter user Gaspardo posted a map of Europe with the caption: "I'm sure Americans don't even know the name of this country." Country in question: Listenburg, an EU country with its own football league, airline, national anthem, and more, all created as a work of collaborative Twitter user fiction. To learn more about Listenburg, including its rich history and current political situation, visit the Listenburg Ministry of the Interior and the official government page.

Arkham, Massachusetts

During his lifetime, he sold only a few stories to cheap tabloid magazines, but G.P. Lovecraft proved to be extremely influential. The setting of many of his space horror films, the city of Arkham, Massachusetts, is still used as a "ghost place" and is a fiction. Located near the equally fictional cities of Innsmouth and Dunwich, Arkham is home to Miskatonic University and asylums. Arkham appears in DC comics as "Arkham Asylum" as the setting for the novels by Stephen Philip Jones and Charles Stross, and it appears in countless stories.

Poyais

General Gregor MacGregor was a Scottish war hero and adventurer who left the British Army in 1810 to become the greatest con man in history. His biggest scam was inventing the nation, and he was so successful at it that people tried to move to a fictional place.

In 1821, MacGregor convinced banks, wealthy people, and European governments that he was establishing a new nation in South America called the Poyais. Calling himself "His Grace Gregor I. Kazik of Poyais," MacGregor urged people in London to buy land in a fictitious country that he said was a stable democracy with fields so rich that the crops could be harvested twice a year. In fact, he did sell pieces of useless jungle on the Mosquito Coast.

In 1822, the first group of settlers went to Poyais, but, having crossed the Atlantic, they found only uninhabited jungle. They decided that they must have sailed to the wrong place and sent their captain on foot in search of the nation. Then a second boat arrived with confused settlers. While the captain was looking for Poyais, hundreds of settlers found out why they call it "Mosquito Coast". Malaria and yellow fever were rampant there. Then a hurricane hit and destroyed their ship, leaving them stranded.

Fortunately, in 1823, the survivors were rescued by a passing ship. By this time, MacGregor had passed London, but a few years later appeared in France, following the same pattern. This time, he didn't go far enough for anyone to die. McGregor eventually retired to Venezuela and never faced any official repercussions from his scam.

Elglow, New York

The "city" of Elglow, New York, did not exist.

Beginning in the 1930s, Elglow appeared on maps produced by the General Drafting Co. It was shown as being in upstate New York, near Roscoe and Rockland. The city's name was an amalgamation of the names of the director of General Drafting, Otto G. Lindbergh (OGL) and Ernest Alpers (EA), his assistant, and was mapped as a copyright trap. Cartographers often populated their work with fictitious names, so if someone cheated on them without paying, they could prove their case in court.

In the 1950s, Rand McNally published a map showing Elglow, New York. The next lawsuit must have seemed like a win-win for General Drafting. But in reality it wasn't. Rand McNally's legal defense was as follows: "Elglow, New York is a real place. There's a general store there called Elglow's General Store, so how can it be fake?"

And Elglow's general store still existed. The store owners saw the name on a General Drafting map and, believing they were in Elglow, named their store Elglow General Store. Rand McNally won the case, but Elglow did not survive - the store closed, and with it the only real evidence of Elglow's existence.

Whether Elglow now exists is almost a philosophical question. You can find it on Google maps, and on February 25, 2014, the USGS added Aglow (unofficially) to the Geographic Names Information System database. Thus, you can say that this is a real place, even if there is no city there.

Atlantis

When Plato needed a backdrop for his Platonic ideal of a state, he invented Atlantis, an island nation that clashed with the gods and sank into the sea. Plato probably had no idea what was creating the place that people would mistake for real for thousands of years. Possible locations for Atlantis include Spain, Africa, Cyprus, Antarctica, Turkey, and pretty much everywhere else. But the historical consensus is that Atlantis never existed - of course, the same was said about Troy until it was discovered in 1870.

Ongs Hat

Ongs Hat, located in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, was listed as a city on early maps of the area. It may have been a small village, but it was probably just Ong's hut, the place where a farmer named Ong stopped on his way to market. But even by the 1930s, Ongs Hat was still on the maps of the area, though there was nothing but the remains of an old shack in the middle of an ancient New Jersey forest.

Fast forward to the 1980s, when strange stories began to appear on bulletin boards and in magazines, detailing an elaborate conspiracy regarding a group of mystics and scientists who had opened the door between dimensions at Ongs Hat.

The story, created by Joseph Matheny and detailed in his book Incunabula Notes: Ongs Hat and Other Gateways to New Dimensions, is a work of fiction, but many eccentrics who followed the carefully crafted trail of clues were convinced it was real. Back in the 2000s, truth seekers would show up at Matheny's doorstep looking for the true story of Ongs Hat.

Misiveria

To keep up with the people on Twitter and their fake European country, the kids on TikTok have their own fictional place. The state of Misiveria is located next to the Missouri, along the Mississippi River. It was the 38th state admitted to the union and its main exports are coal and corn. The capital of Misiveria is Gunter City, home of the Gunter City Bisons basketball team, and notable residents of Misiveria include former President Calvin Coolidge and Leonardo DiCaprio. Miziveria has its own website, subreddit and national anthem. Not bad for a place that is completely fictional.

Friesland

Friesland is an island that appears on almost every map of North America printed between the 1560s and 1660s. The error seems to have arisen because cartographers mistook part of Greenland or Iceland for a separate island, and because of the difficulty and rarity of travel to that part of the world, the existence and position of Friesland was held to be true for over 100 years. In the end, English and French explorers got busy compiling more accurate maps of the region, and Friesland ceased to exist.

Beatos and Goble, Ohio

Beatosu and Goblu are fictitious cities featured on the official maps of the 1978 and 1979 editions of the Michigan State Highway Commission.

Most of the fake cities on the maps are "mountain carts" like Elglow, New York - fictitious records designed to trap anyone who illegally copies information - but Beatos and Goble served a different purpose. Fake cities in Ohio were included on the official maps of Michigan as a joke.

Their names "Beat OSU" and "Go Blue" are a reference to the football rivalry between Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. Peter Fletcher, chairman of the State Highway Commission at the time, ordered the names to be included on his state maps because he was clearly crazy about power.

Crockerland

In 1906, explorer Robert E. Peary traveled to the North Pole. He did not succeed, but in a book he wrote upon his return to civilization, he said that he saw a distant land, looking north from the northernmost point of Canada. He named it "Croker's Land" after George Crocker, the banker who financed his expedition.

In 1909, both Peary and Frederick Cooke claimed to have been the first person to set foot on the North Pole. Cooke said he got there without crossing Crockerland, leading Peary's supporters to conclude that he must be lying.

Instead of telling his supporters that he invented Crockerland to try to get more money from his banker friend, Peary remained silent, and Donald Baxter Macmillan organized an expedition to the Arctic to map Crockerland and prove that Cook was a liar. “I am sure that strange animals will be found there,” Macmillan wrote at the time, “and I hope to discover a new race of people.”

Macmillan's party set up a base in northwest Greenland, and in March 1913 Macmillan and his party embarked on a 1900 km journey across the tundra to Crockerland. The arduous journey shattered the resolve of the explorers, and everyone turned around and went home except Macmillan, Fitzhugh Green, and their two Inuit guides, Piugaattok and Ittukusuk. This motley crew reached the edge of the Arctic Ocean on 11 April.

They set off across the treacherous frozen ocean in search of Crockerland, and on April 21, Macmillan saw a huge island in the distance! Despite Piugaattock saying it was a mirage, the crew moved further north. After five days of crossing the rapidly melting ice sheet, McMillian realized that his guide was right, and they turned around and returned to solid ground just before the ice broke.

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Later on the expedition, Green killed Piugaattock after an argument over the direction. Macmillan and the rest of the Americans covered up the crime by reporting that Piugaattok had died in an avalanche. Due to bad weather, the expedition members returned home only in 1917.

Despite their claims, it appears that neither Cook nor Peary actually reached the North Pole. The first confirmed trip to the Pole was Roald Amundsen's expedition in 1926.

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