A recent article in UW-Madison’s Letters & Science Magazine by Alli Watters has received a Silver Award from CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
The article focuses on the efforts of the Wisconsin State Cartographer’s Office to track down and document “cartographic phantoms” – often forgotten patches of land where there once was a community.
As Watters explains,
Phantoms are the remnants of abandoned unincorporated communities (unincs). These small communities are recognized places but, as the name suggests, are not officially incorporated. Unincs often share their name with local landmarks, like a railway stop or the town tavern. But these already slight communities, usually located in rural areas, are known to shrink or disappear altogether thanks to the societal migration toward more urban environments. That’s when they become ghost towns (when the bones of buildings are still visible) or cartographic phantoms (when there’s nothing left).
This is the first award received by the team at Letters & Science Magazine, so congrats to Alli and the other magazine staff!
CASE, founded in 1974, is a US-based international organization with partners and allies in more than 82 countries. They help members market their institutions to prospective students and families, promote advancement as a career path and communicate the importance of education. This is achieved through research, training and guidance to support education as a critical social institution.
The award notice states,
Congrats to the UW team who produced a fascinating and quirky tale of cartographers and their contributions to the community and state! We praise the comprehensive multimedia storytelling and the playfulness of the writing that matched the levity of the subject matter.
Here at the State Cartographer’s Office, we’re proud to do our part keeping cartography fun and quirky!