ARTICLE: “The New Exploration: Charting the Industrial Wilderness” by Benton MacKaye

In this article MacKaye (the individual discussed in Easterling’s text), writes about rethinking the organization of the industrial United States using metaphors like “mouth” and “source”, and considering the efficiency of communication and lines of flow within.

“Can we create a region? Can we devise a plan? Rather we must discover the region and find the plan.”

On creating paths: The job is not to make the most efficient route. It is already made by nature—it lies there, a hidden potentiality. The job is to discover it. To do this the engineer must search for it—he must explore. His first job, then, is not construction but exploration.

Planners should make city plans as part of an industrial watershed—study the streams and springs that cause them to flood.