#9: California as an Island in Early European Maps
For decades, one of the most famous errors in map history gave the American West a coastline it did not have. California appeared as an island, separated from the mainland by a long channel. The mistake likely grew from misunderstood expedition reports, Spanish secrecy, and the appeal of an older fictional idea of California as a rich, island-like land. Once printed, the image proved stubborn. Map after map repeated it, even as evidence mounted that California was a peninsula.
