Savannah, one square at a time

Savannah was laid out around a repeating pattern of squares, and the plan survived. FOG covers the map in fog and clears only the streets you walk, which turns the historic district into a puzzle you can finish.

A plan built in modules

The historic district follows the Oglethorpe plan: wards built around a central square, repeated across the city, with Bull Street running north to south through the middle. Twenty two of the original squares survive, each shaded by live oaks hung with Spanish moss, and each slightly different, from Chippewa and Madison to Lafayette by the cathedral.

North is the river. Factors Walk and River Street sit below the bluff on old cobblestones, reached by steep stone stairs. South, the squares give way to Forsyth Park and its fountain, and below that to the Victorian district.

How to light the historic district

The squares make an obvious challenge: walk to every one. The efficient way is to go square by square in vertical columns, north along Bull, south along Abercorn, north along Habersham, and so on, crossing the lanes behind the houses as you go. Each column takes well under an hour.

Finish at Forsyth Park, walk its long central path south, and loop back up Whitaker. Go down to River Street in the evening. Bonaventure Cemetery is a few miles east and makes a separate outing.

What the map will show

The historic district is compact, around two and a half miles north to south, and dense. A few long days will clear most of it, and the result looks like graph paper on the map, with the squares as the only breaks in the lines.

The lanes between the house lots are where people miss streets. They are real, mostly public, and they turn a grid into a much finer grid. Summers are humid and hot, so spring and autumn mornings are the best time.

What the app adds to a walk

The ledger tracks the area you have unfogged, the distance you have covered and your share of the whole Earth. Ranks climb with area, from Fogbound and Wanderer up through Scout, Pathfinder and Explorer to Atlas. The collection fills with the countries, regions and cities you have actually stood in, and nothing else can add to it.

Everything stays on the phone: no account, no cloud, no app analytics, no ads. If you already have years of Google Timeline or GPX history, FOG Unlimited can import it, a single purchase rather than a subscription, so Savannah walks you took before installing appear on the map the same day.

Questions people actually ask

Start with a dark map.

FOG is free to explore. No account, no subscription, and your map never leaves your phone.

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