Having established a baseline canonical map – basically Danielle Rousseau’s map with the 100%-identified locations from it and those that can be definitively inferred – the next task is to start adding the major locations from the show to it. And immediately we run into debatable issues.

The map as we left it last time out.

The first thing to do is establish the crash site of Oceanic Flight 815. The pilot episode establishes it crashes on a beach, with debris and even some passengers flung into the nearby jungle.

Unfortunately, it is tricky to ascertain the crash site from visual observation alone. This is also true of most visual observations of scenes: the real filming locations on Oahu were frequently on different sides of the island for locations that were even immediately adjacent to one another, meaning that tracking the position of the sun, where its rising and setting etc is fairly pointless as these things do not correspond to the locations in the show (it’d be nice if they did, but it would also be severely limiting on the film crew’s ability to find locations etc). The main beach camp was filmed on Papailoa Beach on the north-western coast of Oahu, whilst the “Mesa” area immediately behind it was filmed at the famous Kualoa Ranch on the far eastern coast of the island, seventeen miles away.

Ben’s balloon map from Season 2.

On in-show evidence, the first indication of a location is the map created by Ben Linus, whilst he is posing as balloonist “Henry Gale,” in S2E16: The Whole Truth. This map places the camp at the far bottom of the map, suggesting, if the map is oriented as is standard, that the camp is on the south coast of the Island.

However, in the episode S3E22: Through the Looking Glass, Part 1, Ben also creates a map showing the beach camp at the top-left of the map. If this map is oriented correctly, this puts the camp on a north-western shore of the Island, and north of the Barracks. But in S4E6: The Other Woman, the map of the Tempest places the survivors’ camp, once again, firmly on the southern coast of the Island. A map created by Kate just one episode later, in S4E7: Ji Yeon, again puts the beach camp on the south coast of the Island, and further notes that the Barracks is about a day and a half’s travel northwest.

Also, just about every single dialogue reference in the series puts the Others’ territory, and later the Barracks, north of the survivors’ camp almost at the extreme other end of the Island (including the pursuit of Michael in The Hunting Party (S2, E11). I Do (S3, E6) explicitly has Locke and Sayid’s group heading north to locate the Barracks, based on the questionable directions given in the form of a Biblical quote on Mr. Eko’s stick (which explicitly says to go north).

Based on these multiple data points, it is better to conclude that Ben’s map from Through the Looking Glass is oriented incorrectly, with south at the top of the map and north at the bottom. Flipping it does not solve the map’s myriad other problems, but it does, pleasingly, allow to locate the beach camp in a way that is compatible with the other maps and directions. It also allows us to locate the Swan Station and the Pearl Station, which are both also identified on the map. However, the map may not be entirely to scale, as it shows the Barracks located very close by to the north, which is in opposition to the numerous references to the Barracks being in the far north of the Island. Still, it’s a reasonably promising start.

Which Beach is it?

Danielle’s map shows two beaches on the south coast of the Island, one west and one east of the Crater, a somewhat-eroded and overgrown circular feature at the southern extremity of the Island (based on dialogue in S3E20: The Man Behind the Curtain, possibly the remnants of an ancient volcano). The map to the east is noted for its coconuts, so I’ve called it “Coconut Bay.” The map to the west is unnamed. The question here is which beach is our survivors’ one?

Almost all existing fan maps have concluded that the beach in question is the south-western one. There is supporting evidence from Daniel Faraday’s map (from S4E06) of the Tempest that places the survivor’s camp at the south-western end of the Island. However, the same map shows a river nearby, which is not present at the SW beach on Danielle’s map, but is present at the SE one.

More interestingly, our survivors’ beach is home to coconuts: a running gag is that whenever Sayid or Sawyer is angry, they will usually storm off to chop firewood manfully or slice the tops off coconuts (shirtless or not, depending on the pandering mood of the writers that day), which are available abundantly.

Furthermore, placing the camp at the SE beach does have advantages when it comes to attempting to resolve one of the thorniest problems in Lost cartography: integrating Ben’s map of the radio tower with other maps.

Ben’s radio tower map from the Season 3 finale, original orientation.

Ben’s Radio Tower Map

As mentioned previously, this map appears in S3E22 and is drawn by Ben Linus as he attempts to plot a course to intercept Jack’s group on their way to the Radio Tower. The map is bizarre and at extreme variance with most maps of the Island, putting the survivors’ camp on the north-western coast of the Island, the Barracks far to the south and the radio tower on the eastern mountain range rather than the western, where Danielle’s map firmly places it.

It does help to rotate the map by 180 degrees, which immediately makes things look more familiar.  This map puts the radio tower in its correct location (some fan maps move the radio tower to the eastern range to try to square these issues, which feels unnecessary given it’s firm placement on Danielle’s map) and it also shows an extremely rocky coast to the west of the beach camp which might be a weird depiction of the Crater. This seems to support the SE location for the beach camp as well as locations of the Swan and the Pearl in the vicinity of the eastern mountain range rather than the western.

Ben’s radio tower map, rotated 180 degrees.

The map still has problems, mostly notably that the Barracks cannot be that far south, our heroes would have found it a lot earlier, and S3E01: A Tale of Two Cities firmly establishes that the Barracks is much further north, with a panoramic, sweeping view of almost the entire Island possible from overhead. But by rotating the map and putting the camp on the south-eastern coast rather than the south-western, it does allow the map to be integrated more successfully with Danielle’s map.

My updated map, trying to take the above into account.

Conclusion

After much consideration, I will split from Lost cartographic orthodoxy by placing the beach camp on the south-eastern coast of the Island, and use Ben’s map to also place the Swan and Pearl stations.

There are a couple of tweaks that are needed. We know that an area of extreme rocky coastline is located close to the beach camp. This is the area where Inman works on Desmond’s boat, the Elizabeth (S2E23: Live Together, Die Alone), as well as the area the tail section survivors are stymied by, forcing them to cut through the jungle to get to the camp (S2E6: Abandoned). Traditionally this area has been identified with the Crater, specifically its rocky slopes which fall into the sea. However, I’ve always been put off by the lack of an identifiable Crater caldera or similar feature in the area in any episode. To me it makes sense that the Crater is therefore mostly unvisited and located a bit further off from the camp rather than immediately adjacent to it, and the rocky area of coastline is a more modest area of rocky land where the eastern mountain range reaches the sea.

Pleasingly, this resolves a number of other minor issues: it puts the Swan closer to the boat, so first Inman and later Desmond can more convincingly do round trips from the Swan to the boat and back in under 108 minutes. It also puts the camp closer to the submarine cable and Danielle’s area of operations. This helps explain how Hurley (S1E18: Numbers) and later Desmond and Charlie (S3E20: Greatest Hits) get to the cable so fast (Sayid, more exactingly following and mapping the coast, took longer to get there in S1E9: Solitary). It also allows for an area between the mountain ranges to the immediate NW which can serve as the Mesa, between the camp and the Dark Territory; placing the camp on the SW beach meant the characters had to awkwardly head NE around the western mountains and then NW to get to an area resembling the Mesa, which feels like an untenable hike, especially for the hypochondriac who was just trailing around bothering Jack for a while. Finally, it puts the beach camp further away from the radio tower, justifying the epic hike up there in the Season 3 finale, whilst the camp being the SW beach put it right next to the radio tower and not really justifying that huge journey. It’s not a perfect solution and either introduces new problems (it puts the beach camp further from the Tempest than feels comfortable) or it does little to resolve old ones (whether the rocky area is the Crater or not, it doesn’t explain why Sayid never finds the Elizabeth). But it feels like an interesting solution to other, long-standing problems. We’ll see as the series continues if these conclusions still hold firm.

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