Introducing, Trumanverse 2.1. Border-wise, it is very similar to 2.0 (why is why it doesn’t get its own integer). All of the states have been named, finally, and some of the states have been renamed. The main relevant one is Dixona/Delosa, which is now Deltona. This should be the last of the name changes for that state. I had to come up with a name on the fly last time and was never fully satisfied with “Delosa” (the only state name without some historical roots or rationale).
Some state lines were moved, a state was folded into two others, Long Island and the Delaware Peninsula were formally given their boundaries and state names. Plymouth was split into two, as was suggested. Future changes are possible, but I’m feeling pretty good about this map. Unless I decide to utilize John Wesley Powell’s watershed map, I don’t expect it to change much going forward.
History:
Version 1.0
Version 2.0
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15 Responses to Trumanverse, Version 2.1
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Any explanation on the color coding?
Blue is where I’ve/we’ve lived. (Light blue is where she worked on the reservation when I was in Estacado.) Green is where we are and where we’re going. Pink is where I was born.
It looks as if “Long Island” encompasses the entire island of the same name. While that (obviously) makes geographical sense, in most other respects the western end occupied by Queens and Brooklyn is a breed apart.
Yeah, that’s one of those instances where geography trumps culture. Columbia is the same way.
To be honest, I’m still not feeling how you drew up the area around real world New York City. I know this is your map, but I’d probably prefer to see a state drawn around the Metro area boundaries. Arguably, the same could be said for the other major Northeast metros. Of course, I’m the type to HATE metro areas that bleed into multiple states which makes for downright questionable politics.
And FWIW, Champlain would probably be one of the poorest states in the country given that most of it’s land on the NYS side is basically a permanent wilderness under the real-world NYS *Constitution*. OTOH, there’s Fort Drum…
And I’m kinda not feeling the Hudson Valley and the Catskills being lumped into central New York. Maybe calling it the state of Hudson or Catskill would work. But Ulsterland? Shudder.
I agree with you on the Ulsterland name. Don’t like. I just couldn’t think of anything better. Catskill maybe could work?
As far as NYC, I understand where you are coming from. One of the interesting things I’ve learned while doing this is that going by a more geographic system means cities get split up a lot more often. Billings, Pocatello, Boise. It makes sense, when you think about it, because cities are so frequently around bodies of water.
The way I see it, though, NYC is split between two states as it is. This just splits it to three and gives none of them a full claim on the area. In Trumanverse, the constitutent boroughs remain their own cities and together they form almost a city-state. Culturally, if not otherwise. Except that places like Newark (or whatever its Trumanverse counterpart) are more properly thought of as a part of the place, rather than the stepchildren.
I thought about formalizing the city-state thing, but decided that isn’t how things would unfold. It makes sense in many ways, but not historically. This is one of the reasons why I didn’t go the cultural route for states. I basically had the choice of going like how the states might be designed today, or how they might have unfolded originally. I went with the latter.
I agree with you on the Ulsterland name. Don’t like. I just couldn’t think of anything better. Catskill maybe could work?
It’s probably the best and most interesting name for it. Most people tend to think of it as a “Hudson Valley”, especially north of say I-84, but that name is far less compelling and doesn’t really focus on the moutains (or hills to somebody used to real mountains out west) to the West. Said state would end up being the source for the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers*, but you’d never really think of it given that by the time they’re near the source, they’re relatively dinky and forgotten. So, yeah, Catskill is probably the best name unless you want to dig up a name from a Washington Irving novel.
*And coincidentally, much of NYC’s water supply…
Ulsterland covers a lot of territory, even though it doesn’t look that big. The Hudson valley is only a tiny bit of the Eastern side, and the Susquehanna drainage is only a small part, and that river is far more important to other regions.
The Finger lakes are in the middle of that area, though. You could call it “Seneca,” maybe, after one of the larger lakes, which also has a connotation of some of the 19th Century social movements that were so strong here. That still ignores the area to the Southwest, which includes Northern PA, but I don’t know much about that.
Seneca is taken. How about New Netherland?
Seneca is taken. How about New Netherland?
Same problem that Hudson has. New Netherlands is the old Dutch colony that was a strip along the Hudson River between what is now New York and Albany. Anything beyond that and a few places in the Catskills was settled after the 1770s under English and American rule.
State of Cayuga? 🙂
NN wouldn’t be the colony, or the totality of the colony, but rather named after the colony (like Plymouth).
My only objection with Hudson is that it’s a last name (and not the last name of GW or TJ), which we don’t typically states after. (I scratched naming a state after Polk for this reason.)
Ah, I did not see that Seneca was taken (I was so proud of myself!). Out of curiosity, why did Western Ohio get the name Seneca?
I can’t recall, though there was a geographical reason.
You know, I think the birthplace of the Mormon church is in the right area. How about calling it Palmyra? Or maybe Fayette…all sorts of stuff in the area named Fayette.