okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Orienteering archeology
Eric B. spent some time this weekend at Giant City State Park, south of Carbondale, Illinois. He explored a bit on a USGS map and wrote, "I'm told there are O-maps of the park, but I've never seen them. I think the last O-meet in southern IL was at least 20 years ago."
Southern Illinois was once a hot-bed of North American orienteering. In 1970, Sass Peepre came from Ontario to Illinois and helped set up orienteering. Hank Schafermeyer and Ken Ackerman (and certainly some others who I don't know about) were involved in mapping and teaching orienteering. The first U.S. Champs took place near Carbondale on October 17, 1971.
But, that is all in the past. I don't think there is a club left in southern Illinois. That's too bad.
I came across a map from Giant City. Take a look at some of the terrain in these map clips.
Based on my 20+ year old notes, the map and terrain were nice. There were some thick areas and thorns, but the white forest was nice. You could often work through the light green without much trouble by following deer trails. The rock features were big.
Don't forget Boomer!
The little town of Makanda sits on the northwest corner of the Giant City map. If you find yourself in Makanda, you'll want to visit the Boomer Memorial.
posted by Michael |
7:41 PM
