NITRO, CALIFORNIA

'Nitro, California' is a geographic Mountweazel embedded in Yahoo! Maps^[1]. Located in the middle of Point Pinole Regional Shoreline near Richmond, California, Nitro appears to exist only in Yahoo! Maps, and only to catch infringers of Yahoo!'s geographic database.
The above is all that was previously stated in this Wikipedia article, but it appears to be contradicted by the following information.
As the present author does not have any knowledge beyond these research results, further editing by someone with more direct knowledge would be desireable.
A geographical location named Nitro is printed on the USGS topographic map for the Point Pinole area (which predates Yahoo maps).
The relevant 7.5 minute quad is named Mare Island, originally published in 1959, and updated in 1980.
A scanned digital raster graphic (DRG) is available online from
CaSIL^[2].
Nitro appears to be a historical location which may or may not still be considered a real place name.
The name likely originated when the Safety Nitro Company set up an explosives manufacturing plant on the
northen shore of what is now called Point Pinole, in 1881. This and the subsequent take-over of the area
by another explosives manufacturer, Giant Powder (whose name still remains attached to many nearby features) are documented in Point Pinole Park
literature^[3], as well as an
article in Bay Nature^[4].
So the place named Nitro was clearly not invented by Yahoo, but it is not obvious whether it was the name of a town or some
other type of geographic name, and it is also uncertain whether the name might be considered a current place name as it does
appear on multiple current maps but does not seem to be in general use.

Contents

See also

References

See also

★ Trap street

References

1. Yahoo! Maps
2. [1]
3. [2]
4. [3]