Lester Caine wrote:
I'm trying to help with the idea of the addition of 'thousands' of timezones, and in the end if there is evidence for thousands in the USA
Not just in the US. There would be thousands in the rest of the world too.
It sounds as if small pockets of communities combined over a period of time
That's a problem, but it's not the only problem. Communities also changed their minds about the time. Sometimes this was due to a war (the conquering army would keep its capital's time), sometimes other political events. I wouldn't be surprised if (say) France would need even more zones than the US, due to the wars fought there. Shanks lists fewer zones for France than for Indiana, but I suspect that's merely because Shanks lived near Indiana and could better research for Indiana. I do like the idea of having an 'extended' file, for zones that are not likely to be of general interest. Right now, though, we're just trying to get the next release out.