Historical Maps

[Victoria Regina]

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Sanborn maps only show structures, as they were for firemen to know what places were built of. They ARE useful if looking for privys, however, as they show outhouses.

 

[rebel1]

Sanborn maps only show structures, as they were for firemen to know what places were built of. They ARE useful if looking for privys, however, as they show outhouses.

Thank you. I see you are new to this also.

 

[Tigrdog1]

I used to get the USGS gov topo maps and look for old county road beds which even showed abandoned house places sometimes. Then finding these old roads, one could see the old buttercups, Spanish bayonets or wisteria plants that were dead giveaways to old house sites often next to the old road beds. Along with bricks, old bottles could be found off hill sides, and with a metal detector and patience, some old coins. Old house places are a joy as it takes you back to wondering how the family lived, etc.
Old town sites or dirt cross roads where stores might have stood can be deduced from these maps as well.
Happy and blessed new year to all!
Rik

US Topo

Quick order of USGS Topographic Maps, Game Management Unit Maps for Western Big Game Hunting, and Backpacker Pro maps for popular hiking trails. To order custom-centered topo, aerial, and satellite maps or to reorder previously ordered MyTopo maps, call 877-587-9004.

mapstore.mytopo.com

 

[sewingmom]

In TN they have an historical property viewer on line will show you where old houses etc are located. Found out that we had a Lime Kilm on our property in the 20's. Didn't find anything of interest there but it is neet to know.

TN Historical Commission Viewer

tnmap.tn.gov

 

[CanadianBottles]

These polluted dumps are called Superfund sites in the USA. Link below.

List of Superfund sites - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The maps we have here detail a lot more dumps than Superfund-type sites. I definitely wouldn't recommend digging in one of those! The maps I'm referring to show all known sites where municipal trash was ever dumped, including small 19th century dumps. Most aren't earmarked for any sort of remediation, just documented to avoid unpleasant surprises. Here's the Ottawa one, for reference: https://open.ottawa.ca/datasets/8a6..._0/explore?location=45.408991,-75.694791,5.00

 

[hemihampton]

The bad thing about land fills (town dumps) on maps is most are newer (1930+) & most are buried under a ton of dirt needing a bulldozer to find any bottles. would be nice if there was a map that showed old pre 1900 dumps. LEON

 

[rebel1]

I used to get the USGS gov topo maps and look for old county road beds which even showed abandoned house places sometimes. Then finding these old roads, one could see the old buttercups, Spanish bayonets or wisteria plants that were dead giveaways to old house sites often next to the old road beds. Along with bricks, old bottles could be found off hill sides, and with a metal detector and patience, some old coins. Old house places are a joy as it takes you back to wondering how the family lived, etc.
Old town sites or dirt cross roads where stores might have stood can be deduced from these maps as well.
Happy and blessed new year to all!
Rik

US Topo

Quick order of USGS Topographic Maps, Game Management Unit Maps for Western Big Game Hunting, and Backpacker Pro maps for popular hiking trails. To order custom-centered topo, aerial, and satellite maps or to reorder previously ordered MyTopo maps, call 877-587-9004.

mapstore.mytopo.com

Thanks. I remember my grandparents house. It sit on rocks on all corners and the middle. You could see the ground through cracks in the floor. It was cold in the winter and cool in the summer.

 

[mrcure]

I used to get the USGS gov topo maps and look for old county road beds which even showed abandoned house places sometimes. Then finding these old roads, one could see the old buttercups, Spanish bayonets or wisteria plants that were dead giveaways to old house sites often next to the old road beds. Along with bricks, old bottles could be found off hill sides, and with a metal detector and patience, some old coins. Old house places are a joy as it takes you back to wondering how the family lived, etc.
Old town sites or dirt cross roads where stores might have stood can be deduced from these maps as well.
Happy and blessed new year to all!
Rik

US Topo

Quick order of USGS Topographic Maps, Game Management Unit Maps for Western Big Game Hunting, and Backpacker Pro maps for popular hiking trails. To order custom-centered topo, aerial, and satellite maps or to reorder previously ordered MyTopo maps, call 877-587-9004.

mapstore.mytopo.com

Did you purchase those maps?

I can slightly use the image on the website as guidance but I can't zoom to the level of detail that would be practical.

@sewingmom amazing resource! I had been using this site for general property viewing and had no idea of this capability. Many many thanks to you.

 

[willong]

The maps we have here detail a lot more dumps than Superfund-type sites. I definitely wouldn't recommend digging in one of those! The maps I'm referring to show all known sites where municipal trash was ever dumped, including small 19th century dumps. Most aren't earmarked for any sort of remediation, just documented to avoid unpleasant surprises.

I did get the impression that you were talking about something more along those lines. The Superfund sites here in USA are mostly sites that were polluted by industrial operations such as mining and metal refining, chemical processing and the likes. I won't say that we have nothing like the maps you speak of that record municipal landfills; but if we do, I certainly have never encountered such. Digging through historical newspaper articles is a laborious and often fruitless method of finding landfill locations. I found reference to several such sites in the Seattle area through some vintage newspaper articles that have been scanned and posted online, though none of those are locations where one might expect to get away with digging today (one was a site I actually dug in the early 1970's; it came to light when foundation boring for overpass columns brought old junk to the surface in the late 1960's).

 

[hemihampton]

I know some Conservation Maps in Michigan from the 1950's will show Town Dumps, but upon inspection I noticed they are all buried under a ton of Dirt. LEON.