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(UPDATED) Researching USGS Historical Maps

Cool stuff. I tried searching the website for my town on my phone but didn't find any maps. My town is just a suburb of a larger city which did have some maps. I'm going to check those on my computer and see if my town is included on those maps. Thanks for the links!
 
in Adobe X Pro (Others?) the Geospacial (For GPS) is a button you must turn on by going to settings (The gear icon) and under "Analyze" it is there and so is "measure", another handy tool, they wil now be on your toolbar (top of page).

Click to turn on, move curser over object and bottom right will show coord for where ever you got the curser, to turn off, click button again....


Jim
 
Hey thanks for posting this Seven. I wish they would sticky this thread as I think it's invaluable information. I have been trying to narrow down researching since I started back in June and this is by far the easiest and most accurate way for me to find new hunting spots. I just wanted to say thank you for putting this together, it's really great!
 
Cool stuff. I tried searching the website for my town on my phone but didn't find any maps. My town is just a suburb of a larger city which did have some maps. I'm going to check those on my computer and see if my town is included on those maps. Thanks for the links!

Let me know if you have trouble finding one and I will search for you. The maps are divided up fairly small. In my county in Kentucky there are about a dozen USGS topo maps and we live in a relatively small county. Yours will have a map, it just may take some time finding it. Here is another tip: at the top, bottom, both sides, and all four corners, there will be the name of the next map that will join the one you have. Took me a while to figure that out. It's like a puzzle. I'm including a picture to show you what I mean. The map in the picture is Tompkinsville, KY. At the upper left corner you see (FREEDOM) which tells you that the lower right corner of (FREEDOM) joins to the upper left corner of (TOMPKINSVILLE). All corners will have a name of the corner maps and all sides will have the names of the side maps and all the joining names will be in parentheses. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and good look.
 

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in Adobe X Pro (Others?) the Geospacial (For GPS) is a button you must turn on by going to settings (The gear icon) and under "Analyze" it is there and so is "measure", another handy tool, they wil now be on your toolbar (top of page).

Click to turn on, move curser over object and bottom right will show coord for where ever you got the curser, to turn off, click button again....


Jim

Thanks for posting the update Jim.
 
Hey thanks for posting this Seven. I wish they would sticky this thread as I think it's invaluable information. I have been trying to narrow down researching since I started back in June and this is by far the easiest and most accurate way for me to find new hunting spots. I just wanted to say thank you for putting this together, it's really great!

Thanks Punch. I just wanted to pass along information I have gained by bits and pieces. Research is hard enough, much less trying to learn all the map techniques a piece at a time. Hope this helps everyone save some historic artifacts before they become buried under blacktop.
 
Some of you are having trouble getting the Geospatial Location Tool to show up on Adobe. You should be able to get the window to open by going to the main menu at the top and clicking on View. This opens a window that will allow to select Tools or Extended. My Geospatial Location Tool is on the Extended menu but I believe some versions are on Tools. My version of Abode is 10.1.8 and is a free version I downloaded off the internet.
 

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Excellent information. Thank you for sharing this. I will most certainly be using these this winter to find spots for spring hunting.

Thanks you Knight451. Hope you find some productive sites. PM me if you need any additional information once you begin your research. Good luck.
 
This would be an awesome tool to GPS the coords if I could get accurate data. Not sure if it's me doing it wrong or the coordinates for my area are just way off on this mapping tool. If you take a look at these pics I have an old depot marked in an old ghost town that is gone now. On the USGS Adobe tool it shows the coordinates of that depot at 37.5640, -88.7970 which can't possibly be correct according to Earth and HistoricAerials. On the 37 aerial you can clearly see where the depot is sitting and where the USGS Adobe tool has the coordinates for the depot marked are nowhere near it, or even close enough any tracks for that matter.
 

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This would be an awesome tool to GPS the coords if I could get accurate data. Not sure if it's me doing it wrong or the coordinates for my area are just way off on this mapping tool. If you take a look at these pics I have an old depot marked in an old ghost town that is gone now. On the USGS Adobe tool it shows the coordinates of that depot at 37.5640, -88.7970 which can't possibly be correct according to Earth and HistoricAerials. On the 37 aerial you can clearly see where the depot is sitting and where the USGS Adobe tool has the coordinates for the depot marked are nowhere near it, or even close enough any tracks for that matter.

I pulled up the Marion 1925 and 1940 maps and I mark the depot at 37.5660 -88.7974. I pulled up a later map which is 1966 (Creal Springs because this area is not on the Marion map in 1966) and notice something strange. On the 1925 and 1940 maps the depot is west of Sugar Creek where the Central and St. Louis railroads merge side by side. But on the 1966 map the railroads are gone and the GPS location is east of Sugar Creek. I'm wondering if the creek was rerouted some way when the railroads were removed and Tunnel Hill State Trail was put in with the small bridge? It's a puzzle. I would try the coordinates that I gave you and see what you find. The sites I have found on my maps are pretty much dead on, or at least within 20-30 feet so far, but your case is indeed a puzzle. Please let me know what you come up with.
 
I'll go check out the 60's map right now and see what it looks like, but those coordinates you got aren't correct either. The depot was where I have it marked on the Google Earth map. I've already been out to this location a few times and the slab of the depot is still there between where the 2 railroads made the Y. The tunnel hill trail is one of the old rail beds that they took up and made into the trail. Let me go see what the 60's map looks like...
 
Yeah the 60's map doesnt even show the town anymore and the name PARKER was moved up to the only 2 houses that were standing within a few miles for some reason. The depot and hotels and everything was torn down in 45. This video shows some of it, pretty neat. Near the end of the video it also shows where hundreds of people would get down in that Sugar Creek and do baptisms. Time to break the Excal out and get down in that creek soon as this snow melts. :yes:

http://www3.wsiu.org/television/infocusarchive/playermp4.php?record=340
 
Yeah the 60's map doesnt even show the town anymore and the name PARKER was moved up to the only 2 houses that were standing within a few miles for some reason. The depot and hotels and everything was torn down in 45. This video shows some of it, pretty neat. Near the end of the video it also shows where hundreds of people would get down in that Sugar Creek and do baptisms. Time to break the Excal out and get down in that creek soon as this snow melts. :yes:

http://www3.wsiu.org/television/infocusarchive/playermp4.php?record=340

Looks like a sweet spot to hunt. Interesting that your old maps are off on the coordinates. Guess nothing is perfect. But these old maps are a valuable source of information, even if you do have to tweak your techniques for finding the exact locations. Yeah I would definitely hit Sugar Creek... did you see all the people sitting along the bank in that one photo? Surely something fell out of someone's pocket there. Congrats on finding such a cool site and best of luck hunting the old town of Parker. This should be a productive site that will keep you busy for some time.
 
Some of you have sent me PMs that you are having trouble because the USGS Historical Maps list GPS coordinates in Decimals, but when you transfer them to Google Earth they are changed to Degrees, Minutes, Seconds. It appears that this is the default GPS format for Google Earth but it is a simple process to change it. In Google Earth, go to Tools menu and click on Options and in the window that pops up go to Show Lat/Long and click Decimals and then click OK and this convert Google Earth Lat/Long to Decimals. I am including a picture that shows both windows in Google Earth and also a link to my YouTube video that shows the process can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/R4nV2LnVwrA

Hope this helps.

Couple quick questions because I love the maps but these are not accurate at all.

First, I am on google version 7.1.1.1888 and I don't see an options listing under tools, so not sure. I do have a GPS listing but nothing in their about settings for decimals.

Second, I wanted to double check the accuracy of these GPS coordinates because I remember reading somewhere that Google specifically will not give you accurate GPS (something to do with terrorist or something like that) and will actually skew the results by several hundred feet. I just confirmed this by using the steps listed here, highlighting the area with the GPS coordinator in Adobe Acrobat, writing down the coordinates, putting them into Google Earth and im waaaay off. I used a park that has been here since the 50's and cross referenced it with a USGS map from 1952. Specifically the Amphitheatre location at Encanto Park which I know for a fact where its at from the USGS maps (and from my memory as a kid) when I put those GPS coordinates into google earth I land on a house literally 500-700 feet away. Thoughts on why Google Earth isn't accurate with GPS coordinates? I mean, it's not even close.....
 
Couple quick questions because I love the maps but these are not accurate at all.

First, I am on google version 7.1.1.1888 and I don't see an options listing under tools, so not sure. I do have a GPS listing but nothing in their about settings for decimals.

Second, I wanted to double check the accuracy of these GPS coordinates because I remember reading somewhere that Google specifically will not give you accurate GPS (something to do with terrorist or something like that) and will actually skew the results by several hundred feet. I just confirmed this by using the steps listed here, highlighting the area with the GPS coordinator in Adobe Acrobat, writing down the coordinates, putting them into Google Earth and im waaaay off. I used a park that has been here since the 50's and cross referenced it with a USGS map from 1952. Specifically the Amphitheatre location at Encanto Park which I know for a fact where its at from the USGS maps (and from my memory as a kid) when I put those GPS coordinates into google earth I land on a house literally 500-700 feet away. Thoughts on why Google Earth isn't accurate with GPS coordinates? I mean, it's not even close.....

Don't know the answer Punch. I have only one USGS map where the GPS coordinates are off. The rest of mine have been dead-on. I have had a couple of messages experiencing the same problem you describe... GPS being off.
 
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