Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Google Earth Quiz Number One

Test your Aerial Reconnaissance Skills
Amaze your friends


If you're like me, when there are dishes to be done, or garbage cans waiting to be emptied, it means only one thing: time to sit down at the computer for a nice long session of Google Earth.
This evening I put together a little geography quiz for faithful readers. Can you identify the location or significance of the following Civl War scenes? Name the battle? Identify a few landmarks? Judge the season and time of day based on tree shadows? Click on the images to get a larger view.

A number of them are fairly easy, I think, due to road configurations (and in fact, I forgot to turn off the road names on at least one photo) or distinct features. On a couple photos, I placed push-pins to set-off the the tell-tale extant Civil War clues (a building, or monument) amidst a sea of residential and commercial development. All of the images were the scenes of bloody battles, or at least well-known peripheral fights associated with major campaigns (nothing too obscure).

Four of them are from the Western Theater, four are from the East. One is in the Trans-Mississippi.


In all of the photos, there is some famous battlefield feature in the center of the image, or nearly the center, though you may find something along the edges to help solidify your hunch—the more features you identify, the more impressive your answer will be.
Post your answers as comments to this blog entry, and in a day or two I'll identify each image, and post some maps and other photos to show how the fighting transpired, or how the troops were aligned in these landscapes. I'll also heap plaudits upon the winner, if there is one.

Don't cheat by looking up the coordinates before posting your guesses or answers (use them to check your work, if you're dying to know). I did not notice they were listed until after the fact, and it's way too much trouble to go back and edit those out, then upload again. As the quiz evolves from this trial run, I'll edit out those clues. If you do not have a broadband connection to view this page, please accept my apologies, and also my invitation to join the rest of us in the 21st century.

No. 1









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4 comments:

DW@CWBA said...

These remind me of those 3-D computer generated puzzles from a number of years back..you either 'see' it pop out at you or you don't. I've decided to not cheat in any way, and I am baffled by most. 8 has got to be Pea Ridge. The road network gives 4 a Gettysburgish feel. 3 looks like the northern end of Lookout Mountain, 2 Vicksburg, 6 Spotsylvania.

Brick the Fish said...

Great exercise - this is a challenge.
#3 is Vicksburg, I drove thru that park with my family while listening to a guide tape. Excellent park with memorials to all states involved. You can see the road that you follow in this shot.
Baffled by all the others!

Anonymous said...

Great quiz. I always love to see those sites from different angles and from different time periods. The folks on the Gettysburg Photo section of militaryhistoryonline.com would love these pictures and the quiz.

Anonymous said...

holy cow I am so not worthy.

I got Lookout Mtn and Gettysbeard, but have no idea about the others.