The Incredible Disappearing Georgia Trick

No, it isn't a David Copperfield plot. At least we don't think it is. But it seems that various places in Georgia are simply disappearing. Quite a lot of them, in fact. 488 places in Georgia are just gone.

A total of 488 communities have been erased from the latest version of Georgia's official map, victims of too few people and too many letters of type.

Georgia's Department of Transportation, which drew the new map, said that the goal was to make it clearer and less cluttered and that many of the dropped communities were mere "placeholders," generally with fewer than 2,500 people. Some are unincorporated and so small they are not even recognized by the Census Bureau.

The state began handing out the new map at rest stops and welcome centers over the summer.

Gone are such places as Dewy Rose, Hemp, Experiment, Retreat, Wooster, Sharp Top and Chattoogaville, a spot in far northwestern Georgia that consists of little more than a two-truck volunteer fire department, a few farmhouses and a country store where locals fill up their gas tanks.

"We're not under obligation to show every single community," department spokeswoman Karlene Barron said. "While we want to, there's a balancing act. And the map was getting illegible."

Oh, sure. That's a really convincing excuse. Personally, being the suspicious type, I suspect it's more than just bureaucratic indifference. Because, if the place names are gone, how do we know the places are still there at all? Hmmm? No, I rather suspect there's another agenda in action here. Is Georgia being paved over? Inquiring minds want to know.