Mainers say they love their well-worn DeLormes. How about you?

Late last week we shared news about the pending sale of DeLorme to GPS giant Garmin.

Bling the cat puts his stamp of approval on the DeLorme Maine Atlas and Gazetteeer owned by his people, Liz Stanley and Ike Johnson of Warren. (Photo courtesy of Liz Stanley and Ike Johnson)

Bling the cat puts his stamp of approval on the DeLorme Maine Atlas and Gazetteeer owned by his people, Liz Stanley and Ike Johnson of Warren. (Photo courtesy of Liz Stanley and Ike Johnson)

DeLorme, a Maine mapping company, publishes the venerable “The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer,” and many Mainers have come to depend on the map book on their trips afield.

Among the questions we asked: What does your DeLorme mean to you? And what will you do if Garmin decides, at some point in the future, to cease publishing paper maps?

As we expected, Mainers (and those “from away”) were quick to respond, sending photos of their own ratty, well-worn DeLormes, along with comments that ran the gamut from short to essay-length. One constant: Everyone seems to love their Maine Atlas and Gazetteers.

Liz Stanley and Ike Johnson sent along a photo of Bling the Cat, who proves that it’s not just humans who find DeLorme products useful.

A hot drink, and a tattered DeLorme. Looks like it's time to plan adventure. (Photo courtesy of Liz Stanley and Ike Johnson)

A hot drink, and a tattered DeLorme. Looks like it’s time to plan adventure. (Photo courtesy of Liz Stanley and Ike Johnson)

And Jason Fonseca, a flight nurse with LifeFlight of Maine, let us know that it’s not just travelers on the ground who rely on DeLorme.

“I thought you’d get a kick out of knowing that we carry a DeLorme on each helicopter, right next to all of our aviation maps,” Fonseca wrote.

“It’s helped us find many a lost hiker, injured snowmobiler, and remote intersection,” he wrote. “When we get launched to help a local fire department or EMS crew, it’s that tattered, gridded atlas we reach for first to help us envision what our landing zone might look like!”

Over the coming days, keep your eyes peeled at bangordailynews.com for more stories from your fellow readers as they tell us what their tattered DeLorme map books mean to them. We’ll also include several of those tales in an upcoming print edition of the BDN.

In the meantime, keep the stories coming! You can send your essays, memories, or photos to me at jholyoke@bangordailynews.com.

 

 

John Holyoke

About John Holyoke

John Holyoke has been enjoying himself in Maine's great outdoors since he was a kid. Today, he's the Outdoors editor for the BDN, a job that allows him to meet up with Maine outdoors enthusiasts in their natural habitat. The stories he gathers provide fodder for his columns, and this blog.