Maps & Mapping Forum

I came across this site that has been helping me find some areas to MD in.
Its called Historic Aerials

It may not show aerials photos that are very old. But for my area they go back to 1957. It has a tool that you can move a Swipe marker and compare two different years photos. It can also overlay current streets. See below...

The below photo shows mostly what the area looks like today. (well 2006)

The photo below shows you what it looked like in 1957.

The photo below shows the SWIPE tools in the center. This way you can see buildings and such and pinpoint them. It even as Pot LAT / LON tool but it doesn't seem to be working that well as Google earth gives different numbers on the LAT.

I'm using this tool to find areas to MD and hone my skills. It is against the law in my county to MD on County Owned land. Hopefully I can get permission from some land owners to MD in the wooded areas.

I hope the above site will help others.

I have to say that this is the coolest Web tool I have seen in a long time that should help many of us to determine where there's a possiblity of finding older artifacts, coins, etc. I have been finding nothing but clad (a fair amount) but would love to uncover some silver coins and since there are photos of my area going back to 1957, I'll research and see what I can find in our area that seems interesting.

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Thanks for posting this site. I have spent many hours going over my areas on their maps.

Basics on how you can use the above site.

Depending on Aerial Imagery of the area you live you might be able to see back in time.

Type in your address in the area for that in the Left upper side of your browser.

When the image loads you will see a bunch of dates on the right side. Those are the dates of Aerial Imagery available for your area. I was lucky they have Imagery from 1957 - 2006 available.

You can select Compare Tools and SWIPE then a window will load with dates on both the left and right side. A RED arrow will also load in the center top of the Image.

Once it loads you can select different dates on each side and SLIDE the Arrow from left to right to view the differences in the Images as you move the arrow.

If you go back to the main Imagery view you can select Survey Tools and PLOT LAT / LON to get exact coordinates to load in to your GPS.

wow great site

For Maryland, you can find some old 1800's maps to use to locate old home sites and schools that may now be abandoned and use this tool and google maps or bing maps to find out if the abandoned sites are in undeveloped land. If lucky you can maybe get permission to hunt the abandoned sites.
An interactive online map for 1800's maryland is at http://www.wikitreasure.com/Maryland+USA

mine go to 1932

Thank you, old navy guy, I would have never imagined such a thing. Great tool.......old ARMY guy!

Thanks Old Navy Guy!

Another thanks Old Navy Guy! I'm a Newbie and my first ever MD won't be here until early next week. And now that the cold has hit I'll probably be spending most of my time in my backyard getting familiar with it. But at the same time, now is a great time to do some research and your historical aerial site is a keeper!

Cool site buddie, Nice work

I just went to that maps site. Ended up spending the next hour looking at it. Love it, thanks for telling us about it.
I use historicmapworks.com also. This tool compliments that tool. The more tools me have the better we can do our research.