My favorite case of "geographical hoax" is Poyais, a fictional country in central america that a con artist named Gregor MacGregor invented for a scam in the early 19th century.
In an incredible act of chutzpah , he invented a whole country along a fictional city of St Joseph, serving as capital, he printed dollar notes from the "Bank of Poyais", forged geographical data, wrote book about it under a fake name.
His scam resulted in a stock market crash in 1825, and the death of at least 180 peoples out or 250 colonists who expected to settle in St Joseph, but instead arrived to Belize.
I went on a backpacking trip to Isle Royale about 12 years ago, and learned about Moose Boulder (without realizing it was a hoax) before departing. We inquired with some locals about the possibility of reaching it, and we were told to not even think about it. They gave us the impression that it would be hell, hiking through thick foliage without trails and whatnot, so we abandoned the attempt.
Isle Royale, though, was an amazing experience. It's the only park I've ever visited that doesn't have a litter problem. I was there for a week, and I didn't see a single piece of litter. I think the higher barrier to entry for this park results in a different sort of clientele, the sort that has at least a modicum of respect for the rules in such places.
From the article, it does sound like the hiking was hell. They got lost in the middle of the night, bushwhacked to the coast, then bushwhacked around the coast until they found a ranger's house. They had to wake the ranger in the middle of the night to get a ride 10 more miles to the lodge.
Presumably - there is some accepted standard for the smallest geological features which can be called a "lake", "island", or even "pond". Otherwise - I know a few nice, flat areas with clay soil (water drains very slowly), and have a couple grand-nephews who'd be willing to help dig concentric little moats around a big pebble sitting in a puddle, for the fun of setting a record...
Nice little story and I'm sure the internet has many more such fake factoids, I recall e.g. an invented war on Wikipedia which survived as the authors credited books and no one checked whether those are real.
But I struggle to give an article much credence if it describes the westernmost tip of Portugal as an unbeaten track...
Huh, there’s nothing detailing the search for the alleged seasonal pond in the article. Just that they hiked for a while. They didn’t even say “we didn’t find it”. I feel like a chapter was left out!
Did they go in the right season? Did they find any ponds but no boulder?
The article did little to convince me it’s a hoax, though I don’t believe it’s real either.
This has been my impression of this story since it was originally posted, that the discussion of it has been extremely odd and focused more on Taub's narrative than what's actually going on on the island.
My memory of the original story was that it was even stranger, in that what I recall was they got lost, claimed it didn't exist because they didn't find it (even though they were completely lost) and then we were supposed to just go along with that. "San Franciscan goes to Isle Royale with his mom and gets lost, couldn't find a boulder he read about on the internet" would just as accurately describe the whole thing, so why isn't that the story?
I wish this sort of higher-level discussion were more part of the story; it's disappointing to me that Wikipedia isn't more factually accurate about it. I'd change it but my experiences with making edits on Wikipedia are not encouraging.
I've been to Isle Royale, and hiked throughout the interior. I've been to Siskiwit Lake, although not to Ryan Island itself.
Personally I doubt Moose Boulder exists, but I could see a vernal pool with a boulder in it as a real possibility. You can see from the Google Maps satellite imagery there isn't any obvious pond there but who knows. I imagine with enough knowledge of the topography or Ryan Island, someone could model what it would look like with a lot of snowmelt and rain to see if it's even possible for there to be a vernal pool there in spring.
I remember discussing the idea of such a boulder with a companion, not by that name, but as an abstract amusing concept. The geography of the Isle Royale invites the idea of it even if it doesn't exist: the entirety of the place is a maze of rock and water, so it's easy to believe such a thing could be there.
Isle Royale is pretty remote, but Sikiwit Lake isn't that difficult to get to if you go to the trouble of going there. I think the thing easiest to do would be to bring along a good sturdy drone and launch it from the shore at one of the campsites.
On a totally tangential note, I cringe every time I see Isle Royale being mentioned as part of Michigan. It should really be part of Minnesota — the only reason why it's not is because of the vicissitudes of statehood timing and fears of Canada claiming it for itself.
The article makes it clear that Moose Boulder doesn’t exist, and that Ryan Island does exist. But, unless I missed it, there’s nothing about whether Moose Flats (the seasonal pond on Ryan Island which would contain Moose Boulder) exists.
The mother and son duo joke about creating a pond by pouring water around a rock, so I’m guessing that they found no other pond on the island at the time. But that’s not a complete answer.
And yes, I am purely interested in this so I know how deep the “largest lake in the largest island” chain actually goes.
This is all original research WP:OR, so I hope the Siskiwit Lake (Isle Royale) information about Moose Boulder (and related pages) on wikipedia remain unsullied... nope, it's been changed and lists Moose Boulder as a hoax.
The citations are to Atlas Obscura and NPR, so maybe not really WP:OR in the sense WP defines and cares about?
6. Taub, Matthew (March 10, 2020). “The Intrepid Mother and Son Who Unraveled a Geographic Hoax”. Atlas Obscura.
7. “The Lonely Non-Island: Unfortunately, Moose Boulder Doesn’t Exist”. NPR. March 13, 2020.
So now that we know that Moose Boulder does not exist, the only questions that remains is what the government is hiding in that remote location that it went through so much trouble to send two of their agents there for a photo-op and spin up this elaborate disinformation campaign. #IWanttoBelieve
In an incredible act of chutzpah , he invented a whole country along a fictional city of St Joseph, serving as capital, he printed dollar notes from the "Bank of Poyais", forged geographical data, wrote book about it under a fake name.
His scam resulted in a stock market crash in 1825, and the death of at least 180 peoples out or 250 colonists who expected to settle in St Joseph, but instead arrived to Belize.