Google Maps Scavenger Hunt

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tleonhar @ Jul 6 2007, 09:46 AM) [snapback]474070[/snapback]</div>

Well, WWII B-17s were built in Seattle, but flew all their bombing raids from airbases in England. How'd they get to England?

 

Well if you draw a straight line over the globe, you cross Greenland.

I didn't do any research, just followed that line and looked around the coastal areas and the areas that matched color w/ the posted image until I found: Narssarssuaq Airport. If you zoom in further in google maps, you get newer, higher-resolution imagery in that area.

AirportKid, how about a little more explanation of the clues and/or significance of that air strip while I look up a new image?

 

ARGH! Foiled by resolution! I looked at it, and only saw the icy, high resolution images! :angry: Gann was a pilot for the Army Air Corps Air Transportation Command (phew..). He flew in the North Atlantic, Africa, and India (possibly over The Hump?). In WWII, German U-boats made Allied ocean transport exteremly unsafe in the Atlantic. By establishing bases in Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland, Air cover could be provided to some extent, at least along the long, difficult North Atlantic routes. Since most planes of the era didn't have the fuel capacity for a direct Trans-Atlantic filght, most Allied air routes from the US flew via Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland. I had figured it for Greenland or Iceland (the obvious choice being NAS Keflavik), and I even looked directly at it.

Nice one, Kid.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 6 2007, 12:03 PM) [snapback]474170[/snapback]</div>

Thanks! And thanks for saving me typing up the history. For further information, type

Bluie West One

into Google and you'll get more than you ever wanted to know about this vital scrap of landscape. Bluie West One was the airstrip's original name.

When Gann made his first flight to the field, he and his crew were briefed that it was at the end of the middle fjord of three adjacent fjords, and to be damned sure not to fly up the wrong fjord because there's no room to turn around. Enroute, a heavy overcast forced Gann to descend to wavetop height to approach the airstrip (they were down so low the nav antenna lost its "fish" trailing weight when it banged into a wave), so they became uneasy when they realized that the sides of a fjord were closing in on them before they'd realized they'd reached the coast (and been able to select the center fjord). Luckily (and it was pure luck) they'd flown up the right fjord after all.

MB

 

OK here goes:

This monument has one interesting number in common with the leaning tower of Pisa. It's not the number of sides, because Pisa is round... it's not the number of meters from base to tip. It's not even the number of historical reenactments involving flint-locks that happen on the site daily:

[attachmentid=9470]

(wikipedia has a nice collection of stats on the leaning tower, so that might be a good place to start )

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Jul 6 2007, 04:40 PM) [snapback]474220[/snapback]</div>

OK...I'll Play... Bunker Hill

Here is mine...this is where I spent my early professional days...Those three bumps on the bottom are three types of ICBMs. Where are three types of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles found together?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CHART @ Jul 6 2007, 05:34 PM) [snapback]474260[/snapback]</div>

A little googling led to http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/WYCHEmissiles.html

The key words to use were: icbm missiles on display base entrance

The answer is F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne Wyoming

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...p;z=17&om=1

As promised here is the next one without any clues. If needed I'll post some clues tomorrow.[attachmentid=9537]

For full credit, explain why it is important and what are you looking at.

 

Umm... that river is about a mile wide. But that only narrows it down a little.

I don't have a clue... does anyone else have a clue? or a hint?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Jul 9 2007, 01:36 PM) [snapback]475650[/snapback]</div>

The river's not quite that wide - maybe in the bend it's close, but overall maybe 1/2 mile.
Looks to be in the U.S. - plenty of N/S/E/W lines, and there's the square patchwork forest logging, which is common on public lands, at least in the western U.S.

But a river of significance, not in a city or even by a town, I can't get any closer than that. Connected to an explorer perhaps?

 

Well, It's too green around it to be the Nile. Based on the amount of farming around it, and the size of the river, I'm guessing we can eliminate about 50% of the Amazon. That narrows it down to thousands of miles of non-dessert, non-urban rivers. Obviously, the three dams and/or bridges, as well as the two rivers coming together are an important clue, however google searches for "two rivers" "three dams" "three bridges" and "three channels" (in various combinations) yielded lots of hits, and no real results. Quick spot checking of the Mississippi, Amazon, Yangtze, and Yellow River watersheds (looking at their larger confluences) yielded no results. Yay! I got to say "confluences"!!

Without sacrificing massive amounts of my life, I'm striking out. Hints are in order.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 8 2007, 11:34 PM) [snapback]475314[/snapback]</div>

Clue time!

First clue: US Army Corp of Engineer's policy is to "Stay the course"

More in several hours if y'all are still stumped.

 

It seems to me the smaller river to the left is taking water from the bigger river which is flowing from top to bottom. This would mean the land mass in the bottom/left side is actually a big island. Of course, I could be wrong, and I still don't know how that narrows it down. Things like this sometimes happen in the estuary or mouths of rivers, but there seems to be some hills here, so it's not the typical flatland meanderings that would cause this to happen.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 9 2007, 04:22 PM) [snapback]475806[/snapback]</div>

That's got it! It's the Army Corp of Engineers Old River Control Structure - Where the Army Corp is striving to prevent the Mississippi River from shifting it's current bed over into the Atchafalaya River (bless you!). This one is a classical example of Beurocracy in action - by clearing the channels of the Red River and the Atchafalaya River, the Corps created the problem they are now striving to prevent. My turn!

This is in the Airport theme, and in the Marina theme! Whee! Two themes at once!

[attachmentid=9560]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 9 2007, 04:49 PM) [snapback]475814[/snapback]</div>

That's the spectacular Philipsburg St. Maarten airstrip in the Netherlands Antilles

Lemme go find some approach photos of 747s dragging their gear atop sunbathers on that beach ---

[attachmentid=9561] [attachmentid=9562]

Now I gotta go find a landmark ---

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 9 2007, 07:49 PM) [snapback]475814[/snapback]</div>

I knew any clue would make it too easy!

nerfer was on the right track but couldn't believe it wasn't an island.

Great call Mad Hatter!


See http://www.tulane.edu/~bfleury/envirobio/e...loodControl.htm for an interesting discussion. The Corps is not completely to blame. According to this site, "Old River was formed when Captain Henry Shreve dug a shortcut across the the neck of Turnbull’s Bend in 1831."

Other sources can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_River_Control_Structure

See especially, http://www.johnweeks.com/lower_mississippi...es/lmiss23.html

I used to say (not sure, maybe I stole it) that the Old River Control structure was the only structure built by the Corp to ensure a city (New Orleans) would keep flooding!



P.S. Mad Hatter: Airport, marina and golf theme for your post!

 

Hard to say if this place needs a clue or not. This is the closest the satellite would zoom in (so that's a backhanded clue of sorts).

In the annals of monumental screwups, this place figures prominently in one of the biggest. Yet that disastrous fiasco was simultaneously one of the most spectacular successes of all time. Solve that conundrum and you'll know what this place is.

[attachmentid=9570]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 9 2007, 09:36 PM) [snapback]475877[/snapback]</div>

Airportkid great one. The island is South Georgia. The site of one of the greatest small boat sea voyages of all time.

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=-54....c=addr&om=1

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton

"South" by Shackleton was a great read!

Hang on while I find a post.

Found it.

Hint: Historical site. (Not any more impressive from ground level.)

[attachmentid=9572]

 

Weird... I recognized it immediately... I live near Boston, but I've never been there, and I've never see it on Google Maps either... I thought about looking for this spot for my last post though, so maybe that's why I recognized it? Anyway, it's Plymouth Rock.

It has a funny tag on Google Earth:

Now I have to find a new one... back in a jiff.

 

SO... I keep trying to veer away from the "who wants to identify another runway" game, but I can't resist anymore. This spot isn't important for the runway, but it's important to the runway.

[attachmentid=9580]

 

Way too easy for me, especially since I've landed on that very runway!

But if no one gets it by, say, 3:00PM Pacific time, I'll put up the answer and another landmark.

MB