Mapping Nevada

There are countless ways to map the state of Nevada, so to narrow down my discussion, I performed a google image search for “Nevada Maps” to see what popped up first. Surprisingly, the first map to appear was a USGS map documenting major volcanic areas in Nevada. Who knew!?! The map doesn’t articulate what “major volcanic activity” is, so for all we know they are volcanoes that quit erupting eons ago.

Highway maps are the most common form of cartography the average person will encounter, so not surprisingly, most of the maps that appeared were road and highway maps. This is important because cartography is a form of discourse that shapes our perceptions of the world. More importantly, cartographic representations of the world are taken at face value for their credibility, meaning people trust maps no matter the content. Road maps, then, define how the average person mentally maps the world. Highway maps are one dimensional and lack specific imagery. They define the world in terms of transportation and rest stops, making the world seem very plain and very impersonal. The world is nothing more than a means to a destination. It ignores sense of place and other defining attributes of geographic spaces.