A tip for v3(i) users and anyone else.

[Neil in West Jersey]

One of the best investments I made was a handheld GPS device. Last weekend I visited a wooded site. The land owner had told me he knew of a farm house existing deep in the woods, but he was never able to find it.
So I found an old topographic map from 1902 that showed the structure, I overlayed it on Google Earth, matching up the existing roads, I plotted the coordinates and it was a 10 minute hike into the woods that took me directly to the cellar hole!

Unfortunately it was not very productive, being VERY trashy with old tractors, washing machines, and chemical drums, but I did manage a few keeper, digging some Indian Heads and a few Wheaties.

The owner was amazed I was able to find it so quickly!

 

[5900_XL-1]

Where do you get those topographic maps? Are they on-line? Tia martin

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

There are many online resources for topo maps depending on location, but you may also use non-topo maps and stretch and skew them in Google Earth.

Here are a few links:

USGS Topographic Maps


Maptech Historic Topographic Maps

 

[5900_XL-1]

How do you initiate a search like you did for 1902?

 

[Cladiator (OR)]

Thanks for the good information Neil. I was planning on making that part of this winter's research project.

 

[don tyler]

If you can Name of gps Don

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

How do you initiate a search like you did for 1902?

I think keyword searches with things like dates will give you very limited results or a large number of misses. You would be better off using more general search strings made up of 3 or more words, such as "Historic Topographic Maps" or even "Historic Maps" along with your town or county. In my case I may look for "historic topographic map" along with "Philadelphia" or "New Jersey". Experiment a little and click on some of the links for your results.

If you can Name of gps Don

I have a Magellan Triton 400, which is a nice starter unit. It has SD memory and you can download maps. I have even been experimenting with using the historic maps on it, but it takes a lot of work. I had a Garmin unit in the past, which in retrospect was a better unit.

 

[don tyler]

Thanks for info Don

 

[Larry (IL)]

The Maps and Mapping forum is a great source for maps: http://www.findmall.com/list.php?69

Another good GPS for mapping is the Magellan Triton 1500. I still have mine that was put on the Classifieds: http://www.findmall.com/read.php?45,1162100,1201129#msg-1201129

 

[nw1886]

Thanks Neil. I have known about this all but have never used it yet. Looks to be a looming priority.

 

[corvair]

Way to use the old noggin with the GPS. It's cool how your research all seems to come together.

Here is the program I have been using for the last 6 years: http://www.expertgps.com/

This one gets you USGS topographic and aerial photos. You can mark likely waypoints, then upload to your GPS to use in the field.
You can also mark your favorite coin/relic spots in the field and upload to this program and library you hunting spots.

Works very well for hunting, hiking and metal detecting.

I thought I had posted this once before, but I must not have saved it. Anyway, here it is again.

Congratulations Neil on using all the "tools".