Agloe, New York

Fictional Agloe, New York is an example of a copyright trap that became an actual landmark. In the 1930s, General Drafting Company founder Otto G. Lindberg and an assistant, Ernest Alpers, assigned a scramble of their initials to a dirt-road intersection in the Catskill Mountains north of Roscoe, New York. [cite journal |last= Lackie|first=John |year= 25 November 2006 |month= |title= Copyright traps|journal= New Scientist|volume=192 |issue= 2574|pages=62 |id= |url= http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225791.500-copyright-traps.html|accessdate=2008-09-01 |section=The Word] The "paper town" then began to appear on Esso maps. [cite news |first= Pamela D.|last= Jacobsen|title= Can you spot a town that isn't?|work= |publisher= The Christian Science Monitor|date= November 30, 1999|page=23|section=-The Home Forum, Kid Space|accessdate=2008-09-01 ]

Later, Agloe appeared on a Rand McNally map, but it turned out that they had gotten the name from the county administration. Someone had built a general store at the intersection on the map and had given the name Agloe to it because the name was on the Esso maps. [cite web |url= http://www.ianbyrne.free-online.co.uk/special/error2.htm|title= Errors on road maps(2)
accessdate= 2008-09-01|last=Byrne|first= Ian|date= 19 March 2006 |work= Petrol Maps|publisher= ianbyrne.free-online.co.uk]

See also

* Fictitious entry
* Trap street

References