geographic puzzle

[King Pellinore]

what is the spot in the lower 48 which is furthest from a road? How would you go about finding this for a specific area (country, state, world etc) ? I'm sure someone is going to ask 'paved or dirt?' to which I would answer 'both!' lol

 

King Pellinore

[+GeneralBracket]

I can't think of any way except to spend many hours going over current maps. Sounds like a tall task.

 

Then you have the problem of not all roads being on maps. You'd also have to define "road". Ex: Is an ATV track a road? Is a 2' wide trail a road? ect.

[+georgeandmary]

My guess would be somewhere in Nevada for the lower 48.

 

george

 

Wanna go for a ride?

[+parkrrrr]

Start with the USGS DLG files for the area of interest. Remove the neatlines and join the files together. Fix the polygons at the borders. (A DLG file contains topological graphics, so every closed area is represented in the file as a polygon.)

 

Now, for each polygon, compute the point inside the polygon that is furthest from any edge (doing this is left as an exercise for the reader.) Keep track of the maximum distance you've found so far and which point went with it, provided it meets your other criteria (inside the county, state, etc.) When you're done, you have your answer.

 

Computationally expensive, and the first step is rather ugly, but it'll work. There are probably better solutions.

 

[Jamethiel]

DO an online search for the newspaper article about this. A couple of years ago "they" figured that the farthest point fromany roads in teh lower states was 16 miles from teh nearest road. I believe they included logging roads. Some places in Co, some in MT and some in WY were among the farthest. I didn't keep the article but I wish I had. I am pretty certain it was about 16 miles.

 

The furthest point from any road in the continental United States is located deep in the wilds of Yellowstone National Park's Thoroughfare Region.

-Jennifer

 

Age does not bring wisdom, but it does give perspective.

 

[This message was edited by Jamethiel on May 21, 2003 at 02:07 PM.]

[+Renegade Knight]

Probably Idaho with the Frank Church wilderness area. But that's a guess.

 

You would need mapping software that can tell you what the centroid is...nevermind you don't want the centroid.

 

Danged if I know unless you take comments like "Nevada, Frank Church" and start looking at maps.

 

=====================

Wherever you go there you are.

[+StarshipTrooper]

You would also have to include in your definition whether you are counting remnants of roads which may no longer be used.

 

In the lower 48, Idaho has the largest "roadless" area on the map (designated wilderness). Catch is, a lot of that area had dirt roads (from mining, logging and ranching) that date back about 100 years or so. Some (few) of these roads were left open for recreational and/or administrative use. A few are left for access to or on private land (landlocked). And some of those are entirely landlocked (accessable only by small plane). For that matter - you have to specify whether a back country airstrip is counted as a road.

 

Anyway, as a practicle matter most of even *those* roads cannot be used as such for the general public - for various reasons (not maintained, restricted use, grandfathered for private use only, etc...)

 

With all that aside, given a definition that includes only roads and trails that may be traveled (motorized) by the general public - and regardless of what some other study may have said - I would start looking in central Idaho first.

[+Jamie Z]

Believe it or not, King.. I answered this very question just five short months ago. Read here. Cool article, although it is six years old.. so it may not be totally accurate.

 

Jamie

[+Jamie Z]

Uh oh.. I tried my own link in that thread, and it seems Car and Driver has pulled its archive from the web.

 

In any case, the guys at Car and Driver wanted to know the exact thing you were asking. They told all about their journey in the article. The coordinates of the spot are in my referenced post.

 

Jamie

[Team BooneDog]

On a hunting show a few weeks ago they claimed it was in the Bob Marshel Wilderness in Montana

 

I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers

[dsandbro]

You need to think outside the box.

 

My guess would be the Farralone Islands off the California coast (still part of the lower 48 and the North American land mass). The Channel Islands have a few old roads used for trails.

 

===========================================================

"The time has come" the Walrus said "to speak of many things; of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and Kings".

[+Logscaler and Red]

Not what your looking for but maybe a place to start looking for information.

http://geography.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa102700a.htm

 

I think I heard in the lower 48 it was a place in Utah. And as I remember it, there is a cache there.

 

I will keep digging.

 

logscaler.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Gila Wilderness. http://www.gilawilderness.com There are no vehicle allowed.

 

THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE FOREST DOES NOT EVEN LIVE THERE*********WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS*GEOTRYAGAIN **1803-2003 "LOUSIANA PURCHASE" 200TH ANNIVERSARY AND THE "LEWIS AND CLARK EXPADITION" http://www.lapurchase.org http://www.msnusers.com/MissouriTrails

[+wimseyguy]

quote:

---

Not what your looking for but maybe a place to start looking for information.

http://geography.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa102700a.htm

---

Thanks logscaler-the last 30 min I spent there were a lot of fun and very educational. Bring on Trebeck!

 

These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes;

Nothing remains quite the same.

Through all of the islands and all of the highlands,

If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane

[+Don&Betty]

A cache on the bottom in the middle of Lake Superior would be pretty far from a road. It would be below sea level too!