In an attempt to make the official map “clearer and less cluttered,” the Georgia Department of Transportation has removed 488 communities from that map. The communities were mostly — but not always — “placeholders” with populations under 2,500. That number seems a bit high to me: I’m used to placeholders with, like, two or three houses at most. Where I come from, 2,500 is a reasonably sized small town; it’s also a thousand more than the town I presently live in. Via MapHist.

Previously: Ghost Towns.

Update, 12/11: NPR coverage (via All Points Blog). AP coverage linked above also mirrored at CNN and the Houston Chronicle (via Anything Geospatial, Platial News and Neogeography).