Geographic Ignorance

It is not only a certain head of state who thinks that Baltic = Balkans or a certain wannabe head of state who thought that Africa was a nation that is geographically challenged; many of us are too, and about our own region.

My pet geographic peeve right now concerns the belief that Lubbock is in the Texas Panhandle; it is not. The Panhandle begins where it begins on the map, roughly on a line marked by Tulia. The Panhandle Project on iNat has puzzling outliers in it because of geographic misbelief.

The term Llano Estacado probably does not include the Canadian River Breaks or other canyons cutting into it such as Palo Duro or Tule Canyon and maybe not Yellowhouse Canyon but I and others assume it does.

Sure, Texas is weird. "North Texas" ought to be the Panhandle but isn't. We in Lubbock think we are in West Texas while there is a real West Texas out toward El Paso and neither are to be confused with West, Texas.

Posted on February 5, 2020 03:41 PM by thebark