At dawn on Monday, Feb. 10, acting U.S. Geological Survey Director Sarah Ryker awoke to an urgent request from one of her new superiors.
“Please provide an update by COB with a list of Federal and private sector maps that have been changed to the Gulf of America,” emailed Charlie Dankert, the Department of the Interior’s de facto assistant secretary for policy, management and budget.
Hours before, President Donald Trump had proclaimed Feb. 9 the “first ever Gulf of America Day,” although many American maps — online and otherwise — still called the body of water by its traditional moniker, the Gulf of Mexico.
Ryker didn’t immediately respond to Dankert, a former Republican National Committee staffer who had served in the White House during Trump’s first term.
Instead, she first emailed Michael Tischler, the director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Geospatial Program.
“Mike, can your folks come up with a useful response?” Ryker wrote.
So began a flurry of activity by USGS officials to report back the progress of one of the Trump administration’s splashiest early priorities, according to internal emails and documents obtained by NOTUS through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The emails and documents — which build on previously obtained records detailing pitched internal debate and a media blackout at USGS over the “Gulf of America” — describe a frantic tracking effort that included contacting, cajoling and monitoring numerous government agencies, as well as key nongovernmental entities, such as National Geographic and the mapping divisions of Google and Apple.
“Chaotic and fast paced,” is how USGS official Jenna Shelton described the agency’s environment.
After 6 p.m. that Monday, Ryker sent Dankert an email with an update from Tischler.
Google Maps “has been updated.”
Apple Maps would update “soon.”
National Geographic had offered “no response.”
Among government agencies, the State Department was “aware of the need to use names reflected in the databases maintained by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, including the Gulf of America, going forward.”
The Department of Agriculture would update its maps by “early tomorrow.”
The Department of Commerce, which includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had begun updating its hundreds of maps and navigational charts, but said it might need “the next six months” to complete all work.
“The pace of the change rolling through everyone’s systems has definitely picked up late in the day,” Ryker told Dankert.
Dankert thanked her.
But he wasn’t satisfied.
“Please continue to prioritize communications with federal and private sector partners about
implementing this name change and provide another update at the end of the week of noteworthy changes to maps that have been implemented,” he wrote just before 9 p.m.
Ryker quickly fired off an email to nine key USGS colleagues, including Tischler.
“This ongoing interest indicates that the topic could use some creative thinking and discussion with partners on identifying noteworthy map updates, and highlighting them appropriately,” Ryker wrote. “Would you please work toward a plan to meet DOI’s needs — they were exceptionally collegial about it, but the way these changes rolled slowly across the mapping sector clearly caused them headaches today.”
By Tuesday morning, USGS began soliciting updates from numerous public and private entities that published a notable mapping product, the emails indicate.
Responding to a USGS request, the U.S. Forest Service’s assistant director, Betsy Kanalley, wrote back to say she expected various maps under her agency’s purview, such as topographical and ranger district maps, would be updated “no later than the end of May.”
Rikki Wortham, a U.S. Census Bureau official, confirmed that maps published after Feb. 7 would feature the “Gulf of America” — but that some older maps, such as those “explicitly associated with the 2020 Census,” would continue to use the Gulf of Mexico name.
Katie Baynes, an Earth Sciences Division official at NASA, said her team was “aware of the change” but needed more time to provide a full update.
Sean Breyer, a director at Esri, a company that creates geographic information system maps — notably, ArcGIS — wrote to “reassure you that we are prioritizing these name changes based on the executive order.” It followed emails from Tischler to other Esri officials noting that “DOI is interested in efforts to demonstrate adoption of the new name” and “DOI leadership is very interested in understanding the pace and breadth of uptake by the commercial mapping community.”
Other emails obtained by NOTUS indicate that USGS was also working to update an online history of Denali, the Alaska mountain that Trump had also ordered renamed to “Mount McKinley.”
All the while, the phones at USGS kept ringing while email inboxes were filling up.
Jennifer Lacey, a regional USGS director who has since left the agency, noted on Feb. 12 that the Board on Geographic Names “has been getting an extremely high volume of emails with suggestions on the name change.”
USGS official Christine Eustis replied that “we’re also getting alot of calls” to its 1-800 number.
By Friday, Feb. 14 — the day Dankert gave Ryker for the USGS to complete its “Gulf of America” information-gathering blitz — the USGS issued a public statement affirming its “essential role” in the effort to “rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.”
“A name change of this magnitude has multiple facets and requires the efforts of many,” the statement read.
Dankert, for his part, sent a memo on Feb. 14 to top government officials saying that they “must immediately take steps” to change any lingering references to the Gulf of Mexico and “conduct a review of offices, documents, policies, internal and public-facing webpages, signage, and other materials that reference the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ or ‘Denali’ and efficiently change all references, as appropriate, to the ‘Gulf of America’ or ‘Mount McKinley.’”
Deadline: Feb. 28.
Tischler, who had spearheaded USGS’s information-gathering effort, emailed other USGS officials to explain that Ryker didn’t want them burning the “Gulf of America” midnight oil on a Friday night.
“She recognizes the difficulty of this week — especially today … and does not want to make the week any longer than necessary,” Tischler wrote.
In response to phone and email inquiries this week, the Department of the Interior’s press office emailed to say that because of the federal government shutdown, it is only responding to urgent requests and would “respond to non-shutdown related queries once appropriations have been enacted.”
The USGS media office did not respond to requests for comment, nor did officials at Apple, one of the companies cited by USGS.
National Geographic spokesperson Anna Kukelhaus declined to answer questions, referring NOTUS to an August “map policy update” that says the company would continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name while adding an “explanatory note as space allows” that references the “Gulf of America.”
Google spokesperson Caroline Bourdeau also declined to answer questions, and referred NOTUS to a February blog post about how American users would see “Gulf of America” on Google Maps, Mexican users would see “Gulf of Mexico” and the rest of the world would see both.