RENOWNED SOCIETY TO ADD CITY TO ITS MAP PULSKAMP'S REQUEST OK'D.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE

Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- City officials have long wanted to put Santa Clarita on the map, and they learned last week that they'd finally succeeded.

Santa Clarita will now be among the key cities included on the U.S. map published by the National Geographic Society -- a request made last fall by City Manager Ken Pulskamp.

"Just a short note to let you know that we are now adding Santa Clarita to our enlarged United States map, due to your kind letter of Sept. 25, 2006," David Miller, senior editor and category manager for National Geographic Maps, wrote in a June 13 e-mail to Pulskamp.

The organization updates its U.S. map annually, and Pulskamp said he's excited for the city's newfound worldwide visibility.

Pulskamp, an avid traveler and longtime collector of the maps, took a chance with his offbeat pitch to the renowned organization.

"I love your maps! I have actually wallpapered rooms with your maps of different places around the world and universe," Pulskamp wrote in his September 2006 letter to the editor of National Geographic Magazine. Next came the thud.: "I have idolized your maps until your recent map of the U.S. was published." Then Pulskamp mentioned that Santa Clarita's population eclipses that of many cities already on the map, and he noted that the city has been named California's best to live in and routinely ranks as one of the safest cities nationwide.

The map can be bought online at ngmapstore.com.

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