The threads about place names, lost localities, and the Green (KY) and
Blue (IN) Rivers reminds me of when I spent a fair amount of time
looking at the pleurocerids of both.  In the early 1960s, Dave Stansbery
and I wanted to collect at a locality on the Green at the community of
Rio (pronounced Rye-o of course) which Bill Clench had published in the
1930-40s.  The town wasn't on the commonly available USGS and county
maps, was only vaguely recalled by people familiar with the area, and we
determined its location only by the distance from another point
mentioned in Dr. Clench's description.  There was no readily visible
evidence of human habitation, past or present, at the site, but we did
find a  foundation corner deep in the underbrush.  Dr. Clench later
commented to Dave that the community wasn't much at the time of their
first visit.  In the pre-GPS world, town names seemed the most precise
location descriptors in the absence of  other distinguishing landmarks
or certain distance measures, yet these man-made features are prone to
rapid change.  The lesson I learned from the Rio search was to have at
least two independent measures of location in a locality description - a
practice that still has a place alongside our GPS units.
 
Happy New Year.
 
Dave Bickel
 
>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Alan Gettleman [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent:  Thursday, December 31, 1998 8:43 AM
>To:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject:       Geography
>
>
>P.S. to Bob Dayle: The Blue River is a neat little stream which has
>naiad molluscs, which was great fun to pick up the dead shells twenty
>years ago when it was not against the laws of nature and man in Indiana
>to do so.  But for a ex-Texan such as yourself, you must admit that
>little Ohio River south of where you are now is an impressive site.  I
>was amazed (i.e. disappointed) the first time I saw the Rio Grande (Rio
>Bravo) in Brownsville.  You would not have even got your knees wet
>crossing into Mexico (what a disappointment for a river that makes an
>international border).