Historical USGS Maps

[Iceaxe]

Just cleaning out my files and found this. I think I got these links from Mike Dallin a few years back but can

[mrbrejcha]

Fort Lewis, huh, what idiot would want to go to that skool!?! They have a whole bunch of maps on file in the library, I wonder if the hard copies of those are in there. It might be worth checking out, i'm stuck there five days a week for the next month. Good find Ice.

[Iceaxe]

The maps that are really a hot find are the old 7.5 USGS maps (pre 1990 at least). They often list many of the Anasazi ruins and rock art panels. The old maps often list lots of cool stuff that the Feds no longer believe you have a right to know about. Even if it was your tax dollars that funded the original surveys and paid for the mapping on public land that you as a citizen own.

[goofball]

The maps that are really a hot find are the old 7.5 USGS maps (pre 1990 at least). They often list many of the Anasazi ruins and rock art panels. The old maps often list lots of cool stuff that the Feds no longer believe you have a right to know about. Even if it was your tax dollars that funded the original surveys and paid for the mapping on public land that you as a citizen own.

yeah, those older maps are great for finding archaeological sites. i think that is probably why they don't identify them anymore. poaching, vandalism and destruction of those sites probably became an issue. i would like it even less knowing my tax dollars were helping some nimrod vandalize archaelogical sites on my public lands for there own financial gain.

and on another note, i know the navajo at least do not go to these places, they are considered sacred. but what do we care for their cultural beliefs ? anglos come in droves to satisfy their own curiosities and to dig up the remnants of their ancestors civilization. still a good deal of resentment on the res...

[Iceaxe]

still a good deal of resentment on the res...

Anyone here ever read the book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"? If not I'd put it high on your future reading list.

[denaliguide]

The maps that are really a hot find are the old 7.5 USGS maps (pre 1990 at least). They often list many of the Anasazi ruins and rock art panels. The old maps often list lots of cool stuff that the Feds no longer believe you have a right to know about. Even if it was your tax dollars that funded the original surveys and paid for the mapping on public land that you as a citizen own.

7.5? Or do you mean the 15 minute maps. i have a bunch of the old 15 minute maps of the canyonlands and grand gulch area and they show heaps of ruins. i thought when they came out with the 7.5's was when they removed the layer of data that showed the archeaological stuff

[Iceaxe]

I have a couple of the older 7.5's that show ruins. The best map I have is "Bluff NW" which was created in 1975 and updated in 1978. It has lots of ruins.

I believe the ruins were first removed from USGS maps sometime in the 1980's.

[erial]

Cold Splinters posted this 1895 map as part of it's blog entry for today.

http://usgwarchives.org/maps/utah/images/ut1895.jpg

[stefan]

usgs has a database of topo maps of various scales going back many years.

http://nationalmap.gov/historical/

[Scott P]

Cold Splinters posted this 1895 map as part of it's blog entry for today.

Cool map. It's amazing how remote much of Utah was back then. On the map, even some of major rivers and some of the mountain ranges are in the wrong locations (the map is still fairly accurate and beautifully drawn).

[Rob L]

I see that the map has railroads, but no roads...would there be a map of that era showing established roads?

Rob

[Iceaxe]

More historic Utah maps can be found here:

Historic Utah Maps
ftp://ftp.agrc.utah.gov/Imagery/DRG_Vintage/62_5KQuads/

Anther good source here:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/utah/

[Bo_Beck]

Actually the majority are small to medium scale and not large scale. Large scale would be such as 7.5' and 15' maps generally RF 1/24,000-1/50,000....FWIW

Maps are often known as large scale or small scale. A large scale map refers to one which shows greater detail because the representative fraction (e.g. 1/25,000) is a larger fraction than a small scale map which would have an RF of 1/250,000 to 1/7,500,000. Large scale maps will have a RF of 1:50,000 or greater (i.e. 1:10,000). Those between 1:50,000 to 1:250,000 are maps with an intermediate scale. Maps of the world which fit on two 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages are very small scale, about 1 to 100 million.

[bbjones]

I just spent a some time cataloging my 7.5 min. maps.

I have a large contingency of duplicates free to anyone that wants them.

They are of various areas in the state.

If no one wants them, I will use them as wrapping paper.

I am in the SLC area.

8017129298 or PM me if you are interested.

Brandt

[DesertDuke]

This is one of my favorite posts I have ever seen on Bogley. Thank you Iceaxe et al. And BBJones i hope that you didn't get 30,000 phone calls in the first hour. I would guess that you will be getting them for a year of more if you leave your phone number posted.