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USGS Historical Maps

Old Maps

In The Desert

We found the link to this site on Facebook. It's a really neat and large repository of old maps from all over the world. It's free to use and has over 381,000 maps. Here's their introductory page. Click on "Browse the old maps" for the best results. Then scroll and zoom in to get to the areas where you want to view old maps.

We found 3 of the best web sites to locate old maps on-line. The best being USGS because of its easy to use interface and easy downloads of maps in a variety of different formats. You'll find these maps useful in locating old sites, trails and mines in southwest.

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Desert Map

Bookmark this page so you can come back often to use these maps!

Most of these maps go back to the early 1900's to present day and some are years older. There are a lot more maps to explore on this site. You could spend days here. This also a good source of old maps.

Example below of a map section in Fish Springs, Utah

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Desert Map

Web Site Link Below

Old Maps Online - Web Site

This is a great resource, spend some time scrolling down the right hand side of the page after to get to an area of interest.

On their site, scroll down the page till you get to the section in the capture below. The site is not visually attractive, but it has a good data base of maps.

University of Texas Libraries - Web Site

Old Maps Online

USGS is the stand-by map system for maps in the desert. Remember when you use to buy them? The new maps are all available for download on their site, for free. This new map system now includes all their old maps, like the one above that was issued in 1885.

3 New / Old Map Systems

We highly recommend you watch the video tutorial HERE and get some of the basics of using this new map system. Don't let it overwhelm you. Play with the maps. This is the best source of old maps you'll find anywhere.

USGS Old Maps Online - Web Site

There are a lot of different options - map scale and date of issue being just two. You can view the full sized 1885 topo map of St. George, Utah that we downloaded as a JPEG HERE This will give you an idea of what some of these maps are like.

University of Texas Libraries

Web Site Link Below