{"id":1787224,"date":"2019-04-02T18:12:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T22:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1787224"},"modified":"2019-04-02T18:12:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T22:12:59","slug":"search-results-for-forgotten-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/04\/search-results-for-forgotten-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"Search Results for Forgotten Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online maps are giving ghost towns a new life, of sorts. The Daily Southtown<\/em>\u2019s Ted Slowik looks at the case of Gilletts, Illinois<\/a>, a forgotten milk stop on the Rock Island line. But thanks to its listing in the USGS’s Geographic Names Information System<\/a> and the fact that it’s surrounded on all sides by medium-sized cities and towns, doing a search on Gilletts generates all kinds of results.<\/p>\n

Shopping for a new home? A search on Zillow produces 12 results of homes for sale near Gilletts. Trulia, another real estate website, generates 84 results.<\/p>\n

Searching for a job? The website Indeed shows 718 employment opportunities within 5 miles of Gilletts. Another site, Simply Hired, shows 563 jobs available within 5 miles of Gilletts.<\/p>\n

You can find Gilletts on Mapquest. You can get the forecast for Gilletts on AccuWeather\u2019s website. If you\u2019re looking for a hotel room, Booking.com can show you more than 70 rooms available and their distance in miles from downtown Gilletts.<\/p>\n

Except there is no downtown Gilletts, since it was never anything more than a depot where trains stopped to pick up milk that local farmers sold to markets in Chicago and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

But according to Yelp, there are 115 places to eat, 233 things to do and 353 places to shop within striking distance of Gilletts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The same is no doubt true with any named point on the map, and to be honest this is probably how it should be. Web services are providing results based on proximity to a given location: there’s no judgment about the significance<\/em> of that location. You’re the one who put the ghost town’s name into the search engine: here you go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Online maps are giving ghost towns a new life, of sorts. The Daily Southtown\u2019s Ted Slowik looks at the case of Gilletts, Illinois, a forgotten milk stop on the Rock Island line. But thanks to… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[692],"tags":[1330,1329],"class_list":["post-1787224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-toponyms","tag-ghost-towns","tag-gnis","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1805664,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/12\/the-place-names-behind-the-ikea-products\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787224,"position":0},"title":"The Place Names Behind the IKEA Products","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 December 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FDpoZdL1g0E IKEA\u2019s propensity for naming its products after locations in Sweden (among other things) has led to the unintended consequence of search results for those products drowning out search results for the lakes and towns they\u2019re named after. Sweden has launched a more-than-tongue-in-cheek tourist campaign to counter that, inviting people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Toponyms"","block_context":{"text":"Toponyms","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/toponyms\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/FDpoZdL1g0E\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1844342,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/07\/the-mystery-of-elkhams-grave\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787224,"position":1},"title":"The Mystery of Elkhams Grave","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 July 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=n7WW192WKKs In this video, Paul Whitewick explores the strange case of Elkhams Grave, a name on the map that would normally refer to an old crossroad grave site\u2014only it appears to be nowhere near a crossroad, parish boundary or other burial ground. It\u2019s a place name with no apparent surviving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Toponyms"","block_context":{"text":"Toponyms","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/toponyms\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/n7WW192WKKs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1833060,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/07\/historical-maps-of-london\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787224,"position":2},"title":"Historical Maps of London","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"19 July 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Tudor London: The City and Southwark in 1520. Historic Towns Trust. Londonist does a good job introducing us to two maps of old London published by the Historic Towns Trust a few years ago\u2014a map of medieval London (1270-1300) published in 2019, and a map of Tudor London (1520) published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tudor-london.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tudor-london.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tudor-london.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tudor-london.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tudor-london.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tudor-london.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1836377,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/02\/google-maps-at-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787224,"position":3},"title":"Google Maps at 20","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 February 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Google Maps launched 20 years ago today. Here\u2019s what I posted at the time: First impressions. This is frigging amazing, with smooth scrolling and zooming: you\u2019re not constantly reloading pages like in MapQuest. Huge mapping surface. And drop shadows. [...] I\u2019m impressed by the detail. They\u2019ve got my area, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Industry"","block_context":{"text":"Industry","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/industry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1784893,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/01\/cape-towns-disappearing-water-reservoirs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787224,"position":4},"title":"Cape Town’s Disappearing Water Reservoirs","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 January 2018","format":"image","excerpt":"Cape Town is running out of drinking water, a crisis dramatically depicted by NASA Earth Observatory maps that show the depletion of the city's reservoirs. The animated gif above, for example, \"shows how dramatically Theewaterskloof [Cape Town's largest reservoir] has been depleted between January 2014 and January 2018. The extent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weather and Climate"","block_context":{"text":"Weather and Climate","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/weather-and-climate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/theewatersklooof_oli_2018014.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/theewatersklooof_oli_2018014.gif?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/theewatersklooof_oli_2018014.gif?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/theewatersklooof_oli_2018014.gif?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1789572,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/10\/duckduckgo-adds-directions-to-its-search-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787224,"position":5},"title":"DuckDuckGo Adds Directions to Its Search Results","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"23 October 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, which added Apple Maps to its search results in early 2019, has taken the next step and added walking and driving directions to those maps. Like the maps, the directions use Apple\u2019s MapKit JS framework. [Daring Fireball]","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787226,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787224\/revisions\/1787226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}