Is Anybody on This List Using Wikimapia Yet?

Wikimapia appears to be a cross between Google maps and Wikipedia. It combines satellite images from Google with a database of Wikipedia-like "places" created by volunteers. Although Wikimapia has only existed for a few weeks, it already contains an enormous number of places scattered all over the planet.

To see how Wikimapia works, go to

and click on one of the little white boxes. This will take you a satellite image of a city, where you'll see more white boxes. Each of these boxes highlights a "place" that some volunteer has created and described. Click on any white box to read the description. You can navigate around by dragging the image with your mouse, and you can add your own comments to any description by selecting MENU-->EDIT.

You can also create a new place by clicking WIKIMAPIA-->ADD NEW PLACE. A white box will appear in the center of your screen; adjust its location, then save it. The new place will appear as an "upcoming" place, which means Wikimapia won't accept it as final until several other volunteers have voted to approve it (you can't vote for your own places). To view upcoming places, select VIEW-->UPCOMING PLACES.

For my part, I've been creating places all over the country. A few of my favorites (some of which are still upcoming):

-- Brazoria County (Texas) Historical Museum, where I volunteer cataloging old maps.

-- The Spiral Jetty, an earthwork sculpture in the Great Salt Lake.

-- A PCS antenna on a lighting structure at an athletic field. You can't see the antenna, but you can see its shadow on the shadow of the tower.

-- The former location of the mouth of the San Bernard River. When this sat photo was taken, the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico; however, it's now completely blocked by a sandbar piled up recent windstorms.

-- The San Bernard Oak, the largest Live Oak in Texas. It stands in a dense bottomland forest, so in the satellite view it looks just like its surroundings. I located it by GPS coordinates.

-- The Kansas/Nebraska Point of Beginning, the starting point for every land survey in Kansas, Nebraska, most of Colorado, most of Wyoming, and a small part of South Dakota.

-- Independence, Kansas, home of our moderator. The main intersection in downtown Independence (Main and 10th streets) falls on a section corner 96 miles east, and 191 miles south, of the aforementioned Kansas/Nebraska POB (and more properly described as the southeast corner of Section 25 T32S R15E).

Neal McLain