

Matthews and others reach out to Esri partners, distributors, and government organizations worldwide and request authoritative data to add to the atlas. This collection has approximately 4,000 basemaps imagery historical maps story maps and maps with information on demographics, lifestyles, boundaries, the landscape, traffic, transportation systems, and earth observations (e.g., precipitation, snowfall, and earthquakes). He recruits organizations to provide content, including imagery, for use in the Living Atlas of the World, a vast and evolving online compilation of authoritative maps, apps, Esri Story Map apps, scenes, and layers on a wide variety of themes. Matthews joined Esri in 2011 as a cartographic specialist. Later, as a product manager, he oversaw development of the Trails Illustrated Topographic Recreation Maps and Adventure Travel map series. As a production cartographer there, he created and edited map products. He worked at the National Geographic Society from 1999 to 2011. The 45-year-old Virginia native and outdoorsman earned a bachelor of science degree in geography from Appalachian State University in North Carolina.

That incident notwithstanding, Matthews and maps typically go hand in hand. “My background is in physical geography, so that is what I relied on without getting too nervous.”

“I knew the whole watershed was spilling into Bear Creek, so if I followed the stream, I would eventually hit that creek and could get my bearings from there,” said Matthews.

However, when the trail he was following fizzled out, he didn’t panic. Because he was familiar with the trail, Matthews had set out without a map or compass. The Esri cartographer was hiking in the rugged Mount Evans Wilderness Area in Colorado. A few years ago, geographic knowledge paid off for Shane C.
