Boyd, I will use that USGS 24K topo. One thing I'd like to know, can I reliably call out the year this topo depicts (i.e, 1995 topo map), and if so, is it uniform throughout south Jersey?
DRG24k quad dates
- Thread starter bobpbx
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Note: I split these posts into a separate thread, because I delete old posts from the problems thread
They were made during the period 1995-98, but who knows what maps they actually chose to scan? So, I would say there is definitely no way to "reliably call out the year the topo depicts" - sorry. You could compare individual quads to the versions in the historical topographic map collection and possibly match them up, maybe? (there actually is a way - see the post(s) below.
ngmdb.usgs.gov
Here is an example metadata file from the USDA/NRCS versions, which are mosaics they created for each county. As you can see, there are no dates (except 2000, when the published the metadata). You might find metadata for individual quads somewhere else? The DRG's were originally produced as individual quadrangles, complete with the collars, titles, notes, etc - just like the paper maps. They have to be cropped and combined to make a seamless map.
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Here is an example metadata file from the USDA/NRCS versions, which are mosaics they created for each county. As you can see, there are no dates (except 2000, when the published the metadata). You might find metadata for individual quads somewhere else? The DRG's were originally produced as individual quadrangles, complete with the collars, titles, notes, etc - just like the paper maps. They have to be cropped and combined to make a seamless map.
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OK - duh - there is actually a very simple way to find out the date of each quad, but unfortunately there's a big caveat. Since the original DRG's are complete quads, just download them and look at the date! 
For example:
Now for the caveat... you will need to find the full quads, and the only source I know is here, but it doesn't appear to be complete (did not actually check though).
Anyway, click on the quads you want, download and unzip the file. It will be in a TIFF file that can be opened in photoshop or other graphics software. AFAIK, NJGIN does not offer the individual quads for download. There used to be a site called libremap (or something) which had quads for every state. They have shut down now however and the bare bones of their site still exist but all the map files are gone. Might be able to find them at archive.org?
For example:Now for the caveat... you will need to find the full quads, and the only source I know is here, but it doesn't appear to be complete (did not actually check though).
Anyway, click on the quads you want, download and unzip the file. It will be in a TIFF file that can be opened in photoshop or other graphics software. AFAIK, NJGIN does not offer the individual quads for download
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Haha... I stand corrected again! I kept going to this site to find DRG's from other states and they were all gone. However, it looks like the NJ maps are still there (or at least the one I clicked on is). Good thing about this is you don't even have to download, you can view right on their site. No guarantee that these are the same quads in my map, but AFAIK, they only scanned one version of each quad. You would need to confirm that yourself, if the date is important.
http://libremap.org/data/state/new_jersey/drg/
Woodmansie quad, for example:
Note - looking closer at that, the links actually take you to files at archive.org, so I guess they are resurrecting the old website that way...
http://libremap.org/data/state/new_jersey/drg/
Woodmansie quad, for example:
Note - looking closer at that, the links actually take you to files at archive.org, so I guess they are resurrecting the old website that way...
Okay, after reading all that, I'm just going to omit the date. I downloaded all the south jersey topo maps a long time ago. I have at least 2 versions of each. I'm wasting time chasing dates. The original maps were created to hold in your hand or hang on the wall, and that plan is quaint now.
Thank you for the answer.
Thank you for the answer.
The whole date thing is very confusing on these old maps. Look at the title block for the New Egypt quad that I posted above. Map was made in 1957, photo-revised in 1971 and photo-inspected in 1977. But when I made my big legacy24k map, it consisted of about 7200 quads so I didn't have time to research each and just downloaded what appeared to be the newest version directly from the USGS archives
But who knows which is which? There are 4 different maps from 1957, they may have been revised on different dates... or not at all. I suspect there are even examples where the most recently revised quad was originally created before some of the others.
But, regarding the boydsmaps DRG topo, all of New Jersey and a portion of Eastern PA is actually my personal download from 20 years ago, using USAPhotoMaps which pulled data directly from Terraserver. And that meshes nicely with my reason for creating this map - to preserve the original digital versions of the DRG topos. So, in the Pines at least, this map really is a time machine that takes you back to 2005 when we thought Terraserver and Topozone were ground-breaking.
The quality is pretty terrible on these maps, but I find them to be strangely satisfying from a nostalgic point of view - like listening to an old scratchy recording instead of a clean, digital version.
But who knows which is which? There are 4 different maps from 1957, they may have been revised on different dates... or not at all. I suspect there are even examples where the most recently revised quad was originally created before some of the others.
But, regarding the boydsmaps DRG topo, all of New Jersey and a portion of Eastern PA is actually my personal download from 20 years ago, using USAPhotoMaps which pulled data directly from Terraserver. And that meshes nicely with my reason for creating this map - to preserve the original digital versions of the DRG topos. So, in the Pines at least, this map really is a time machine that takes you back to 2005 when we thought Terraserver and Topozone were ground-breaking.
The quality is pretty terrible on these maps, but I find them to be strangely satisfying from a nostalgic point of view - like listening to an old scratchy recording instead of a clean, digital version.
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