An influencer has mapped one of the few remaining places in the United States left hidden on Google’s Street View.
North Oaks is located just 15 miles from the bustling city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, but is entirely exempt from nearly all of Google Maps’ features.
Chris Parr, a Minnesota-based content creator, told The Daily Mail that the city had banned the tech company from taking Street View pictures for the last two decades.
“The mystery about North Oaks comes when you start learning about North Oaks,” he told the website.
The city has been able to maintain its relative secrecy through a rule in each home buyer’s warranty deed. Every resident’s property line goes halfway into the street, effectively making the entire area private land.
According to The Associated Press, the property law enabled city officials to threaten Google with legal action in 2008.
“It's not the hoity-toity folks trying to figure out how to keep the world away," Thomas Watson, the then-mayor, told the AP. "They really didn't have any authorization to go on private property."
After receiving a letter from the city’s authorities, Google pulled all Street View images of North Oaks from its online maps.
“Maps are a piece of public infrastructure,” Parr told The Mail. “To have an incomplete map is a disservice to humanity.”
Parr, though, found a loophole in the city’s strict rules that have prevented entry to North Oaks.
According to a video uploaded to Parr’s YouTube channel, North Oaks had only banned trespassing and not mapping itself. That meant he could map the area using an airborne drone launched from outside the city.
In order to get around the city’s strict monitoring system, Parr posted an advert to Craigslist requesting an invitation to North Oaks. Eventually, a user permitted him entry for $10.
“There is a perception that a lot of executives, a lot of CEOs of Minnesota companies, live in North Oaks,” he told The Mail.
Railway tycoon James J. Hill established North Oaks Farm in the 19th Century, with the surrounding area later developing into the affluent city. More recently, LA Chargers’ offensive tackle Joe Alt was born in the area, and former Vice President Walter Mondale owned a property in North Oaks.
In his YouTube video about the city, Parr revealed that North Oaks is filled with grand houses and neat, snow-plowed roads. Each property is dotted between neatly-kept lawns and gardens
Some of the opulent houses in the city are listed on Zillow for as much as $2.9 million.
Few other areas in the world are as unmapped by Google as North Oaks.
Virtually none of North Korea is mapped, with only a few spots in the nation’s capital, Pyongyang, being available to view online.
Swathes of rural China, a country covering around 3.7 million square miles, are also unmapped.
Conversely, nearly the entirety of the United States is available to view on Google Maps.
Only select areas, such as Area 51 and other government facilities, remain invisible on the tech company’s map service.
The Independent has reached out to Google and Krista Wolter, the mayor of North Oaks, for comment.
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