Local USGS Topo Maps – Free Downloads

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This is great news! The USGS has made available many of their Topo Maps in digital form in PDF's that can be downloaded free on their http://nationalmap.gov/digital_map/ website. Here is what they say about these new free digital maps.

What Makes The USGS "Digital Map – Beta" Different From Other Electronic Maps?

• Richer content….more than a street map
• Can be used on the computer or plotted and printed to scale
• Looks and feels like the legacy paper USGS topographic maps with user selected layers
• Nationally consistent data; quality assured to standards
• Can be downloaded free from the USGS Store
• User interaction tools can be downloaded free
• Users can select from various reference systems: Latitude/Longitude, UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator), and MGRS (Military Grid Reference System)
• Direct "mash-up" capabilities with Google Maps®
• Will continue to evolve and incorporate additional data layers including contours

Here is what you will want to do to use these Topo Maps.

1. Download the Quick Start Guide http://nationalmap.gov/digital_map/quickstart.pdf

2. The go to the Digital Map Store

3. On the Right Hand Side of the page you can type in the Zip Code for Trinidad Colorado which is 81082, or for Weston Colorado 81091, Aguilar 81020 or Walsenburg 81089 and that will get to close to the area where you want. Just navigate from there on the Google Map to the area that you want the topo map of.

4. Just below the map on the left corner click the Yellow "Show DigiMaps" button.

5. After you find the location that you want on the map, double click on the map and a Red Marker will appear.

6. Click on the Red Marker and a popup window will tell you the USGS Map Quadrangle Name and give you some options for which maps are available for download. Click on the download link of the map that you want and save it to your computer.

7. You will want to also download the TerraGo Toolbar for Adobe Reader and it will give you more features to use with the topo such as the ability to view maps with multiple coordinate displays, measure length and area, turn layers on and off and search map attributes.

Hope you find this useful I sure have.

Charlie
Adobe Gold Properties
1-866-309-9919
719-695-0255