Savage mapmaker destroys tiny towns in rural US South

A new map created by Georgia's Department of Transportation erases a number of small rural communities off the face of the planet: gone, gone, gone, are Poetry Tulip, Due West, and Po Biddy Crossroads.

Roosterville, Hemp, and Cloudland are also among the nearly 500 towns removed from the state's official map, nuked because mapmakers say there isn't enough room to fit 'em all. Creative typography could help — mapmaker Rand McNally won't be killing these communities off, because their map designers use varying font types and sizes. It's also nice to know this problem need not exist with digital maps. Snip from AP report:

Georgia's Department of Transportation, which drew the new map, said that the goal was to make it clearer and less cluttered and that many of the dropped communities were mere "placeholders," generally with fewer than 2,500 people. Some are unincorporated and so small they are not even recognized by the Census Bureau. The state began handing out the new map at rest stops and welcome centers over the summer.

(…) "We're not under obligation to show every single community," department spokeswoman Karlene Barron said. "While we want to, there's a balancing act. And the map was getting illegible."

That doesn't ease the snub to the people who live in those places.

"This gets back to respect for rural areas," said Dennis Holt, who is leading a community group that wants to restore the good name of western Georgia's Hickory Level Community, population 1,000, which was founded in 1828 and recently put up five new welcome signs. "I'm not sure we're going to accomplish anything, but I would have felt bad about myself if I didn't say something about it."

Link. Image (AP): "Dennis Holt has been a resident of Hickory Level Community, Georgia, since 1970. His and several other small communities are being left off the state map."

Reader comment: Jeremy says,

This is a college in Due West, SC, one of the small towns being left off the map. How are they leaving it off the map with a college in the town? Oh, and my grandparents live in Due West.