John, Thanks for the reply. Yes, there are maps from ca. 1911. I think these might have been the first US Geological Survey Maps. I saw one recentlly for Bulloch County it has roads and dots for location of each household. It's great to have for old homeplaces and other land marks, etc. SCB ----- Original Message ----- From: <VKRatliff@aol.com> To: <GASCREVE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 11:39 PM Subject: [GASCREVE] Topographic Maps, aka "Topos" > Gee, Smith, you kind of threw me with that "dated" map comment. I never > asked if they had "back" issues, I just order the "current" ones. Each map > is "dated" and some of them are back in the 50's so its not like they issue > new ones each year. And I would further doubt that they were even producing > them in 1911. There ARE indeed maps of that era but NOT to my knowledge > specifically produced by the U. S. Geological Survey in this common format > for the whole U. S. I rather doubt that the U. S. Geological Survey was even > in operation in 1911. > > This one looks to me for all the world like a WPA project that someone in > government correctly figured actually served an on-going purpose so they kept > it alive. > > Typically, stores that specialize in camping and hiking stuff will have a few > topos on hand but they are usually ones that follow rivers or hiking areas or > at any rate aren't particularly aimed at genealogists.....unless you just > luck up on one. Usually they will order topos for you but they tack on a > profit so its easier to do it yourself. > > Many years ago the USGS had an office in Atlanta where you could just buy > topos over the counter but those days are long gone to the best of my > knowledge. > As you can imagine, these things don't exactly move like hotcakes so I > speculate the government centralized the inventory for the whole country and > you just order by mail. > > There may be an easier way to do it but my routine is to write: > > USGS - Information Services > P. O. Box 25286, Mail Stop 306 > Denver Federal Center > Denver, Colorado 80225 > > Request information for ordering topographic surveys and tell them which > state(s) you want. They will send you order forms and a huge, for example, > map of Georgia > that has the "quadranges" laid out over it so you will know which ones to > order. There will be lists of other maps of possibile interest.....4 maps to > make up all of Georgia for example, a map of the entire state, a map of each > county, other specialized maps, etc. Typically its 3 or 4 bucks per map > which you will consider a bargain when you get them. They are quite > professional and, on the 7.5 minute scale you can do some serious > pin-pointing. Contours are at 10' intervals. > > The "scale" you will likely want as a genealogist looking for (or plotting > the coordinates for a known location of) cemeteries, churches, etc. is called > "the 7.5 minute series", the 7 1/2 minutes being the "amount" of the > coordinates east to west and north to south. In scale 1" equals 2000 feet. > For example if you want to cover all of Screven County its about 8 or so > maps. You may not want them all. They have names like Sylvania North > Quadrange, Sylvania South Quadrangle, Hunter's Quadrangle, Brier Creek > Landing Quadrangle, Jacksonboro Bridge Quadrangle, etc. And you order them > just like that; i. e. specifying the names of the quadrangles. The "master" > map with the quadrangles on it locates topographical features, roads, rivers, > etc. so its not likely you will order more than you need if you have a fairly > good fix on where you are looking. > > In a couple of weeks you should get the ordering material from Denver and > then after you order its about another 3 to 4 weeks for delivery as I recall. > > I haven't done this drill in the last 3 or 4 years so if anyone knows if the > procedure is changed please hop in and correct. Hope this helps you. > > John M. Poythress > > > > ============================== > Search ALL of RootsWeb's mailing lists in real time. > RootsWeb's Personalized Mailing Lists: > http://pml.rootsweb.com/ > >