Agloe, New York

From Omnictionary

Agloe, New York is a fictitious village created by the Esso company in the early 1930s and inserted into tourist maps as a copyright trap, or paper town. Located at the intersection of two dirt roads just north of Roscoe, NY, Agloe was the creation of mapmakers Otto G. Lindberg and Ernest Alpers, who invented the name by anagramming their initials. Copyright traps have been featured in mapmaking for centuries. Cartographers often create fictional landmarks, streets, and municipalities and place them obscurely into their maps. If the fictional entry is found on another cartographer's map, it becomes clear a map has been plagiarized. Copyright traps are also sometimes known as key traps, paper streets, and paper towns. Although few cartographic corporations acknowledge their existence, copyright traps remain a common feature even in contemporary maps.

In the 1940s, Agloe, New York, began appearing on maps created by other companies. Esso suspected copyright infringement and prepared several lawsuits, but in fact, an unknown resident had built "The Agloe General Store" at the intersection that appeared on the Esso map. The building, which doesn't exist anymore, was the only structure in Agloe. John Green, author of Paper Towns, suggests in his Author's Note that if "Agloe" were to be put back on maps, people would eventually rebuild it.