Ultimately, there is no one single spot on the
old maps that could serve as the fictional location of Karl May’s fictional
‘Silver-Lake’; in fact, they all could. In true May fashion, he created his own
landscape by taking a little bit from everywhere and putting it together to
suit the fabulous plot of this novel. However, May had to have source material
(maps, descriptions, etc) of the real landscape, and his descriptions, in a
way, do show a route of sorts, from Kansas to Silver-Lake. This composite map gives
an idea of the complexities involved, especially since the inscription of
‘Silver Lake Desert’ on another map is shown in Utah, near Fillmore, as the
plot dictates, but not anywhere near the Colorado River, where the route of the
plot has taken the heroes. Be that as it may – the journey of trying to fathom
May’s puzzle is worth the effort, eventhough the destination is not of a fixed
point.
