Topo Maps & Trails

Atlas of Yellowstone
It’s scheduled for completion in 2010, but already the Atlas of Yellowstone, tantalizing bits of which that have already been completed are already available for preview, looks more than promising. It goes beyond maps of just the park, although… »
Posted on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 9:04 PM
Categories: Books, Topo Maps & Trails
Contour Lines and Other Stories: A Google Roundup
Contour lines have been added to Google Maps’s terrain map layer, which adds its their usefulness (especially, for example, in a mountain context). But it has some way to go before it’s a suitable replacement for a topo map;… »
Posted on Friday, April 4, 2008 at 9:31 AM
Categories: Blogs, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Online Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
Topographic Map Symbols
Topographic map symbols for historic topographic maps: “Presented here is a collection of symbols used on USGS Topographic Maps printed from the late 1890s. The styles of the symbols have changed dramatically since this time, and the beginning of their… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 1:37 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Cartography, Topo Maps & Trails
A Revised Wainwright Update
When last we heard about Chris Jesty’s revision of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, nearly three years ago, volume one (of seven) was just about to be published. Now five volumes have been published, the Cumberland News… »
Posted on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 8:09 PM
Categories: Books, Topo Maps & Trails
The Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Map
At the University of Maine’s Folger Library this Wednesday, cartographer Michael Hermann and Penobscot Nation Tribal Historian James Francis will give a presentation on the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Map. “‘The Process of Map Design: equal cartographic voice’ will be an… »
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 10:53 AM
Categories: Talks & Presentations, Topo Maps & Trails
Rozel Point Southwest
Don’t miss Cartophilia’s post about the most curious quadrangle map in the USGS’s catalogue: Rozel Point Southwest, Utah. In the middle of Great Salt Lake. You can see where this is going…. »
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 8:47 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
James Niehues Profile
The Colorado Springs Gazette profiles ski resort illustrator James Niehues, whom we first encountered in March 2006. “For 20 years, Niehues, 61, has been North America’s preeminent ski resort illustrator — the guy who paints the trail maps for… »
Posted on Sunday, November 4, 2007 at 1:39 PM
Categories: Art, Topo Maps & Trails
The National Map Corps
The United States Geological Survey’s National Map makes use of a corps of volunteers, who are assigned a given area (a USGS quad) and report the names and coordinates of various map features, such as schools, town halls and other… »
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 5:45 PM
Categories: Surveying, Topo Maps & Trails, Tracerouting
Molly Holmberg’s Watercolour Maps
Most trail maps are spare and functional: without context, you might not even know that trees and mountains are involved. But geography graduate student Molly Holmberg has produced a watercolour map of the trails and open spaces of Bangor, Maine… »
Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 1:55 PM
Categories: Art, Topo Maps & Trails
Army Mapmaking in the Field
Via GeoCarta, an article about army mapmaking in Iraq, where it now takes a day for the team to create a customized, mission-specific map on a plotter; when it was done by hand, it could take as much as a… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 10:25 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
GeoGratis: Free Canadian Topo Data
Further to the previous report that the government of Canada would make digital topographic data available for free: here is the official announcement and here is the site where you can download that data. It’s called GeoGratis — cute. Via… »
Posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 2:18 PM
Categories: GIS, Topo Maps & Trails
Matt Fox’s Topographic Map Archive as Google Earth Layer
Matt Fox, who georectified the Great Salt Lake bathymetric maps for use as Google Earth overlays, has made available his entire collection of maps through a Google Earth network link. The collection includes topo maps of the western U.S.,… »
Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 11:09 AM
Categories: Earth Sciences, Georeferencing, Google Earth, Topo Maps & Trails
Government of Canada Frees Topo Data
Last June, Paul posted something about a rumour that Natural Resources Canada had been on the verge of making digital topographic data freely available, but that it had been put on hold while the new minister reviewed the decision. Today,… »
Posted on Friday, March 9, 2007 at 9:46 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Canadian Campaign for Up-to-Date Topo Maps
So what is Maps for Canadians doing now that the federal government changed its mind and decided not to stop producing paper topo maps? They’re campaigning to bring our topo maps up to date — and they want people to… »
Posted on Monday, February 26, 2007 at 5:21 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Soviet Spy Maps For Sale
Remember those Soviet maps of the UK that Russian spies compiled during the Cold War? Now reprints are being offered for sale, El Reg reports. (This reminds me that my Soviet map of the world is badly torn and needs… »
Posted on Friday, February 23, 2007 at 9:36 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Topo Maps of Mars
It’s a bit presumptuous to call them “hiker’s maps,” as the European Space Agency does in its announcement, but the Mars Express scientists have generated several sample topographic maps of the Iani Chaos region of Mars, in an exercise… »
Posted on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Topo Maps & Trails
Great Salt Lake Bathymetric Maps
GeoCarta reports that the second of two bathymetric maps of Utah’s Great Salt Lake has been released by the USGS. Both maps are available online (north part, south part) and available for download as substantial 150-dpi PDF files; Matt… »
Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 1:07 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Recent Obituaries
The deaths of the following people associated with cartography were reported recently: Tom Devine (1927-2006) spent 32 years working as a cartographer for the USGS; he was a mountain climber and stereographic photographer in his off-hours. Via Maps-L. Bradford Washburn… »
Posted on Saturday, January 13, 2007 at 7:40 PM
Categories: Cartography, Obituaries, Topo Maps & Trails
Historic Pittsburgh Map Collection
Historic Pittsburgh is a site featuring documents, maps and books from the University of Pittsburgh and other Pittsburgh-area collections. Their Map Collections section has four large series of map scans available: Geodetic and topographic survey maps for Pittsburgh between… »
Posted on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 at 8:43 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Pittsburgh, Topo Maps & Trails
Soviet-Era Topo Maps of Russian Cities
Paul sends along a link to these scans of topo maps of Russian cities. The Soviet-era maps date from the 1980s, from what I can tell; they’re downloadable as very large TIFF files. Previously: Soviet Mapping Update; Soviet Spies… »
Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at 8:16 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Canadian Topo Maps Aftermath
Via Maps-L, a letter in the Dec. 4 issue of The Hill Times, a weekly newspaper covering the Canadian government, from Heather McAdam of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives argues that while paper topographic maps have been… »
Posted on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 9:53 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
ACME Mapper
ACME Mapper started out as a front end for TerraServer; it’s now a Google Maps mashup that adds TerraServer data (including USGS topo maps) and NEXRAD weather radar data as additional layers — though these added layers are U.S.-only. Via… »
Posted on Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 6:17 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Topo Maps & Trails, Weather & Climate
Ordnance Survey Loses Subsidy
The Guardian reports that the British government has decided to end a subsidy to the Ordnance Survey. The subsidy appears to have had two purposes: one, to ease the OS’s transition from a state-run agency to what is referred to… »
Posted on Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 2:38 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Gary Lunn Responds
Today I received the following letter, dated October 30, from the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, Gary Lunn, in response to my letter asking him to overturn the decision to stop producing paper topographic maps. You will recall that shortly… »
Posted on Friday, November 3, 2006 at 4:28 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Libre Map Project
You may recall Jared Benedict’s stunt last August to “free the maps” by raising $1,600 to pay for a complete set of USGS topographic map data. The fruits of that fundraiser — 1:24K DRGs, geonames and other geospatial data files… »
Posted on Monday, October 30, 2006 at 9:31 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Archiwum Map WIG
This site is a digital archive of maps produced by the Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny, the Polish Geographic-Military Institute, which existed between 1919 and 1939 and produced some very good topographic maps of the country. Lots of scans here, all very… »
Posted on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 7:26 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
New Map of Jasper National Park
The Jasper Booster reports that two Jasper residents named Mike (Mike Mitchell and Mike Day) have spent the past few years designing a new map of Jasper National Park, the first map of the entire park since Parks Canada… »
Posted on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 1:11 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Mac Version of National Geographic Topo! Reviewed
Grant reviews the Mac version of National Geographic’s Topo! software: “a pretty decent package, but not great.” Via GPS Tracklog. Because the Topo! series is U.S.-only, I haven’t had cause to try it out; I hope someday to find an… »
Posted on Friday, October 20, 2006 at 8:17 AM
Categories: Macintosh, Topo Maps & Trails
Broer Library Adds 1,300 USGS Topo Maps
The Broer Map Library, which I mentioned last month, seems to be coming along nicely; Dave Broer announced on Maps-L that scans of 1,300 old USGS topo maps have been added to the collection. “This brings our online offering to… »
Posted on Monday, October 16, 2006 at 11:21 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
Breaking: Canadian Topo Map Decision Reversed!
Slashgeo reports: “As a followup on previous announcement of the end of paper maps for Canadians, we learn today that ‘[…] the decision to close the Canada Map Office as of next year has been reversed by the NRCan Minister.’”… »
Posted on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 9:40 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
U.S. Forest Service Geodata
GPS Tracklog has discovered a clearing house for U.S. Forest Service geodata, and talks about how that geodata can be used (hint: raster images can be viewed in most image viewers)…. »
Posted on Monday, October 9, 2006 at 9:40 PM
Categories: GIS, Topo Maps & Trails
A Letter to Gary Lunn
In the spirit of Maps for Canadians’s letter-writing campaign to overturn the Canadian government’s decision to stop producing topo maps (see previous entry), I have written my own letter to Minister of Natural Resources Gary Lunn. (More effective to write… »
Posted on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 10:54 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Maps for Canadians: Lobbying for Paper Topo Maps
Maps for Canadians is an online campaign to get the Canadian government to reverse its decision to stop printing paper topographical maps. They encourage people to write the Minister of Natural Resources and their local member of parliament; note that… »
Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 9:50 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Lawrence Journal-World on Orienteering
Today’s edition of the Lawrence Journal-World has a feature on orienteering, with a look at local clubs. For you young whippersnappers with your fancy GPS doohickeys, that’s like geocaching, but with only a compass and topo map…. »
Posted on Sunday, September 17, 2006 at 8:40 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Free the Maps!
U.S. government data is ostensibly public domain, but as Jared Benedict, the force behind the Libre Map Project, discovered, you still need to pay for it sometimes. Jared was trying to make USGS 1:24,000 topo maps in DRG format… »
Posted on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 at 8:20 AM
Categories: Copyright, Topo Maps & Trails
Dutch Cadastral and Topo Maps
It’s in Dutch, so I’m likely missing most of the nuances, but this site — De WoonOmgeving — has both 1832 cadastral and 2000 topo maps of the Netherlands available through the same interface; if both are available for a… »
Posted on Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 9:10 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
Cook Islands, Tokelau and New Zealand’s Offshore Islands
Topographic maps of New Zealand’s Offshore Islands, the Cook Islands and Tokelau are available for download from Land Information New Zealand’s web site. The maps are mostly 1:25,000, with a few 1:50,000, and are large-sized JPEGs, big enough to… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 at 10:06 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Canadian Topo Map Update: CCA Conference Items
Interspersed with Cartography’s coverage of the CCA conference were a couple of tidbits about the government’s decision to get out of the business of paper maps. From this post: Representatives of [Natural Resources Canada] were there to explain their plans… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at 10:19 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
China Surveying Hoh Xil Region
China’s official Xinhua news agency reports that the Chinese government has begun mapping a large uninhabited region of western China, variously called Hoh Xil or Kekexili, in the northwestern part of the Tibetan plateau, as part of a project to… »
Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 at 3:27 PM
Categories: Surveying, Topo Maps & Trails
LA County Hiking Maps
Hikers with GPS receivers have mapped out previously uncharted trails between Santa Clarita and Palmdale in northern Los Angeles County, California, the LA Daily News reports. The maps, which were tentatively approved by the county’s Regional Planning Commission this week,… »
Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 at 11:19 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Paper Maps: Doomed in Canada, But Not Elsewhere?
Capital News, the student newspaper of Carleton University’s journalism school, has a story about the imminent demise of paper topographic maps in Canada. (I suspect that link might not be permanent.) There’s nothing really new in this story: the Centre… »
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 10:37 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Triangulations: March 27
Jeff Thurston’s contribution to the debate over free geodata looks at the question of scale: if you want geospatial data to be free and updated regularly, consider the huge amount of territory that has to be mapped. Wired’s piece,… »
Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 at 11:03 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books, GIS, GPS, Hacks & Mashups, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Triangulations: March 15
Boing Boing reports that the archive of silly Tube maps (previously mentioned here) has gotten into a spot of legal trouble and has been taken offline. As a followup on this question, have a look at Stefan’s post about… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 9:06 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Triangulations: March 10
(I’m going to try calling these link roundups “Triangulations” and see how that goes.) Via GPS Tracklog, the difference between Garmin’s and Magellan’s topo maps. The National Geographic Society is planning a “mega-map” of the Sonoran Desert region. “It will… »
Posted on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 6:36 AM
Categories: Environment, GPS, Hacks & Mashups, Macintosh, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Question: Topo Maps in Google Earth?
Evan Roberts asks, Why do you think Google hasn’t integrated USGS topographic quads as a layer in Google Earth? Not enough of a demand? Not relevant to its business model? Don’t want to step on the toes of GPS partners?… »
Posted on Thursday, March 9, 2006 at 8:35 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Questions, Topo Maps & Trails
James Niehues’s Ski Resort Maps
Commercial artist James Niehues is responsible for a large number of panoramic ski resort maps — those bird’s-eye-view illustrations showing all the runs. A lot of them are available on his web site: there are galleries for eastern U.S., western… »
Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 9:00 PM
Categories: Art, Topo Maps & Trails
Book Review: GPS Mapping by Rich Owings
GPS Mapping: Make Your Own Maps by Rich Owings Ten Mile Press, 2005. Softcover, 382 pp. ISBN 0-9760926-3-8 This is a book for people who want to get their hands dirty with mapping software and GPS units and generate maps… »
Posted on Friday, February 10, 2006 at 11:09 AM
Categories: Book Reviews, GPS, Software, Topo Maps & Trails
National Geographic Maps: News from Evergreen
In response to competition from the online mapping services, National Geographic Maps is restructuring, moving away from producing general-interest maps and towards specific niches, such as recreation, emergency, geology and other field work, the Denver Business Journal reports (via All… »
Posted on Monday, January 30, 2006 at 9:06 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Canadian Topo Map Update: CBC Coverage
It’s not online, and I don’t have a URL to refer to, but on CBC Ottawa’s local TV news last night, they had a long feature on the federal government’s decision to get out of the business of producing paper… »
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 7:38 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Free Australian Maps, Images and Data
The Australian government makes satellite imagery, geology maps (1:250,000 scale) and spatial data available free of charge. Via Glenn’s GISUser Weblog. See previous entry: Satellite Images and the Weather…. »
Posted on Thursday, December 1, 2005 at 3:23 PM
Categories: GIS, Satellite & Aerial, Topo Maps & Trails
Soviet Mapping Update
Cartography has an update on John Davies’s research into clandestine Soviet mapping, and points to a collection of World War II era Soviet maps. See previous entries: Soviet Spies Map the World; Soviet Topo Maps; Old Russian Maps…. »
Posted on Thursday, December 1, 2005 at 3:11 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Soviet Spies Map the World
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union compiled topographic maps of virtually every corner of the world, to the extent that they are the only topo maps available for certain countries. The maps were both standardized and accurate; they were… »
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 8:39 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Volunteers Map Trails with GPS
The 19th edition of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association’s “Walk Book” was generated by volunteers with GPS receivers; it took them three years to cover approximately 1,200 km of trails. With 40 per cent of the trails on private… »
Posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 at 8:13 PM
Categories: GPS, Topo Maps & Trails
BP, Russian Security and Large-Scale Maps
More trouble in Russia over the possession of large-scale (i.e., 1:25,000) maps, this time involving oil company BP. Apparently foreigners — including foreign corporations doing business in Russia — aren’t allowed to have them. Via Cartography. See previous entry: Maps… »
Posted on Monday, October 24, 2005 at 6:53 PM
Categories: Censorship & Security, Topo Maps & Trails
One of Our Maps Is Missing
The legally binding 1978 map of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has gone missing, the New York Times reports (free registration required). The map, wall-sized and 1:250,000 scale, was last seen in 2002 and apparently disappeared some time in early… »
Posted on Friday, October 21, 2005 at 10:18 AM
Categories: Current Events, Topo Maps & Trails
Canadian Topo Map Update: Globe and Mail Coverage
The Globe and Mail has picked up the story (free registration may be required) about the Canadian government’s decision to get out of the business of printing paper topo maps, and map seller Brad Green’s campaign to overturn that decision…. »
Posted on Tuesday, October 4, 2005 at 6:52 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Canadian Government Abandoning Paper Topo Maps?
The Canadian government wants to get out of the business of producing paper topographical maps, according to an e-mail from World of Maps president Brad Green (reprinted on Cartography). As of January 2007, when the lease on the Canada Map… »
Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2005 at 4:29 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
NOAA’s Historical Map and Chart Collection
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey’s Historical Map and Chart Collection “contains over 20,000 maps and charts from the late 1700s to present day. The Collection includes some of the nation’s earliest nautical charts, hydrographic surveys, topographic surveys, geodetic surveys, city… »
Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2005 at 7:29 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Nautical, Surveying, Topo Maps & Trails
Mountain Bike Trails and Other Tyrolean Maps
Maps from the government of Tirol, one of the Austrian Länder, including this map of mountain bike trails in that Alpine region. Thanks, Glenn…. »
Posted on Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 10:34 AM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
LA Times Trail Maps
The LA Times has put together a collection of maps of trails in southern California. The maps are PDFs, and you’ll have to register to get at them. Via Gadling…. »
Posted on Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at 12:52 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Maps as State Secrets
If you’re bemoaning the lack of open geographical data in your country, the following should give you pause. In Russia, public maps are limited to a scale of 1:100,000, with secret installations “cleansed”; higher-resolution maps are considered state secrets, their… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at 9:48 PM
Categories: Censorship & Security, Topo Maps & Trails
Fisk’s Geological Investigation
Pruned has discovered Harold Fisk’s 1944 Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River, the text and plates of which are available for download from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers web site (though at hundreds of… »
Posted on Monday, June 27, 2005 at 4:26 PM
Categories: Topo Maps & Trails
Revising Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright’s seven-volume Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells (reissued box set), published between 1955 and 1966, were apparently marvels of art and detail (though I haven’t found any samples online), and have served as the definitive guides to hiking… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 at 8:23 PM
Categories: Books, Topo Maps & Trails
MountMaps
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a topo map mated with a pop-up book? No, you probably haven’t; you’re not that strange. I don’t know where these guys got the idea to make pop-up topographical maps for… »
Posted on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 at 1:50 PM
Categories: Other Technology, Topo Maps & Trails
SF Bay Topo Maps
UC Berkeley has scanned and put online about a hundred years’ worth of USGS topographic maps of the San Francisco Bay area. Via Plep…. »
Posted on Wednesday, February 9, 2005 at 4:37 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
Soviet Topo Maps; Old Russian Maps
Ezra Padoa writes with a few links to collections of Russian/Soviet maps. First off are collections of Soviet military topographical maps. Says Ezra, “I’ve heard that Soviet military cartographers could be tried for treason if they made any mistakes. At… »
Posted on Thursday, November 25, 2004 at 10:08 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
Historic Topo Maps of New England and New York
The University of New Hampshire Library has put online a digital collection of old topo maps of New England and New York. Very high-resolution scans. This online collection of over 1500 USGS topographic maps includes complete geographical coverage of New… »
Posted on Monday, September 20, 2004 at 10:18 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Topo Maps & Trails

Note: Entries from 2003 were not categorized and will not appear in the category archives. Please consult the monthly archives.