The impressive collection of antique maps of the Southwestern United States previously belonging to Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon garnered some headlines this month for all of the wrong reasons. The $12.1 million sale (for over $8 million in profit) of the collection from McClendon to his company was afforded only a footnote in the company’s financial statement, winning the ‘worst footnote of the year’ award. Here’s is Chesapeake’s less-than-revealing explanation for the purchase. And check out Chesapeake’s official declaration of additional information here after the headlines from the sale generated more than a few questions. Still not an itemized list, unfortunately. Also lost in the uproar was the fact that the map purchase will probably go down as the best asset Chesapeake bought in the last decade. Time will tell..

Continuing the theme of map errors and oddities, Chris Lane at Antiue Prints Blog has listed a few of the more interesting (and egregious) errors of USA maps from the 17th century. The selection includes missing coastlines, phantom lakes, and mountain ranges that only exist in the mapmakers mind. We’ll have a few similar maps available for sale in February 2010 – watch this space.