There are some older, fairly extensive posts about the content of the blast door map, but most of those posts were made before many of you started following this project. Since it has come up in the answers to several recent questions, let’s revisit Radzinsky and Inman’s contribution to Island cartography.

For the purposes of this project, the locations on the blast door map fall into three categories: confirmed, confident, and incorrect. This image is a simplified version of the map which contains only the most pertinent information regarding locations.

Confirmed locations are green. The places are either marked as “confirmed” on the map itself or (in the case of the Pearl) were later confirmed by the producers. For these locations, the Island Map deviates as little as possible from the blast door map, even though evidence from later seasons (like the fate of the Black Rock) can be somewhat contradictory.

Confident locations are orange. They aren’t marked as “confirmed,” but they are all well-known and long-standing DHARMA facilities. Radzinsky would have ben well-aware of these locations, and confident of the positions of the notations on his map. Again, the Island Map attempts to deviate as little as possible from the general positions of these locations.

Incorrect locations are red. These notations were marked as “alleged” or “possible” locations on the blast door map. We know that these places do exist on The Island, however, their locations are eventually shown to be very different than they appear on the blast door. It seems likely that Radzinsky would have known the accurate locations for most of these facilities, but we know that he eventually committed suicide and Kelvin Inman later finished the map. The most logical assumption is that these notations were added by Kelvin, who was not as sure about their locations. For these places, evidence from elsewhere in the show is used to determine their locations.

There are three other places indicated on the blast door map which are neither confirmed nor alleged locations. The authors were probably fairly confident of these locations because they are all well-known and long-standing DHARMA facilities.

The Barracks: Every member of the DHARMA Initiative would almost certainly have had knowledge of the Barracks. We have already established the position of the barracks, and the blast door map confirms that location.

The Arrow: As a high-ranking DHARMA member, Radzinsky would also have had detailed knowledge of the Arrow station. Its primary function was to develop defensive strategies to be used against the Hostiles. The map indicates that the Arrow is in the far northeast area of The Island.

Pala Ferry: Although we have never seen the ferry, it was apparently an important mode of transportation around The Island. The blast door map indicates that it is northwest of the Pearl, but there’s a problem.

There is a station labeled as “C3” in the northeastern area of the map. It is accompanied by a notation indicating that this may be a manufacturing facility with light industrial equipment. This sounds somewhat like the characteristics of the Tempest station. However, we have already established that the Tempest is in the southwestern mountains near the coast, which would indicate that C3 is either a completely different, unknown station, or that the authors had very little evidence to help them determine the actual location of the Tempest. For the purposes of this map, we’ll assume that C3 does indicate the Tempest, but is simply in the wrong place.

Similarly, there is a station labeled “C4” with a notation that this is the alleged location of the Pearl. We know that the Pearl is at the center of the map, indicating that C4 is yet another unknown station. If Radzinsky and Inman had evidence to suggest that it might be the Pearl, this could suggest that C4 is another monitoring station, similar to the Pearl.

We have already established the location of the Looking Glass with Rousseau’s map and her notation about the submarine cable. The blast door map authors were correct in placing it in the southern area of The Island, however the evidence suggests that it is located off the eastern coast, instead of the west as they indicated.

There is a crossed-out station on the blast door map, with a notation that this may be the location of the Orchid station. The location would place if at the far northern area of The Island, northwest of the Barracks. However, I believe that the Orchid is much closer to the Pearl than the blast door map suggests. I will discuss the evidence for this conclusion in a later post.

There are several items on the map marked as “alleged” or “possible” locations. It is probable that these places do exist, but the authors of the map simply didn’t have enough information to confirm their locations.

It’s interesting that the Flame was drawn on the map complete with its station logo, indicating that the author was fairly confident of this location. However, it was also accompanied by a notation that this was the “alleged” location. We later learn that Radzinsky was stationed at the Flame for some period of time, so he certainly should’ve known its exact location near the barracks.

However, we also know that at some point after Radzinsky died, Kelvin Inman took over drawing the map. We must assume that Radzinsky never got around to drawing the Flame while he was working on the map, and that Kelvin later had to guess at its location.

It’s actually a really good guess, too. The position indicated on the map is almost the exact location of the radio tower. The Flame and the tower had several functions in common, most notably communication with the outside world. There must have been evidence to suggest that there was a communications facility at that location, but it’s easy to see how one might’ve been confused for the other.

The “?” was discovered on the show [and later confirmed by the producers] to be the Pearl station, despite the fact that the map authors suspected that the Pearl was in another location.

The Swan: Radzinsky and Inman obviously knew this position because they were stationed at the Swan.

The Staff: Radzinsky, as a long-time member of the DHARMA Initiative [he claimed to be second-in-command to Horace], would’ve certainly had knowledge of the locations and functions of other DHARMA facilities. That being said, the Staff is the only other hatch on the map which is marked as confirmed. It is located in a northwest direction from the Pearl, and appears to be located at the base of the mountains.

The Black Rock & Magnus Hanso’s gravesite: Radzinsky would’ve either known about the ship from his time on The Island before being stationed at the Swan, or he or Kelvin might have discovered it during their brief exploring missions from the Swan. The Black Rock is east-by-southeast from the Pearl, and located in the mountains.

This is a simplified version of the blast door map, containing only the information pertaining to locations on The Island. As stated earlier, the authors of the map, Stuart Radzinsky and Kelvin Inman, were confident that the places on the map actually existed. However, there are only three places on the map which are marked as confirmed locations. These locations are labeled in red. In the following posts, we’ll explore these locations in more detail.