United States Geography Activity

Conditions and Connections

Background

You and about 70 other people have spent the last month on a ship sailing toward a new home across the ocean. During that long voyage, you often talked about what kind of town you want to build and where it should be located. Traders and scouts have given you a map that identifies five possible locations for a town. Your job is to analyze the map and make a recommendation about which place to choose.

 

Conditions and Connections (Site and Situation)

Before you start trying to pick a location for your town, it might be worthwhile to think about the concept of location. This simple-sounding idea really has two parts: Site – the conditions right there, in the place you are studying. (For example, place A would have a dry landing sheltered from strong NW winds.) Situation – the connections between your place and other places. (For example, place A would be nearly 15 miles away from good cropland.) The ability to judge geographic conditions and connections from maps is a useful skill.  It is valuable for business decision-makers, and it can also help people decide where they would like to live, work, or travel.

 

In evaluating places, you also have to remember that what makes a site or situation valuable depends partly on the culture of the people in a region. Here are three examples:

1) A rock that is rich in iron ore is a geographic condition, but it is valuable only if people have the technology to use iron. If they don’t, iron ore is basically worthless.

 

2) A flood-prone field is useful for farming only if people know how to grow crops (such as rice) that tolerate flooding, or if they know how to build protective levees or drains.

 

3) A great natural harbor has little value for people who produce something that is small and light and therefore does not cost much to transport (e.g., diamond rings).

 

In short, every place on earth has a particular set of conditions and connections, but their value depends on the culture of the people who live there. In doing this activity, therefore, you have to put yourself into the time of the people moving to a new land in the early 1600s.