Day: April 27, 2004

1876 Utah Map at the Library of Congress that shows relief by hachures, drainage, post offices, stations, counties, cities and towns, roads, and railroads with names.

Here’s an 1855 map from the Library of Congress, American Memory, Map Collections. This was surveyed a year before the Mellors traveled to Utah with the Martin Handcart Company.

From the valley of Green River to the Great Salt Lake. From explorations and surveys made under the direction of Hon. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War by Capt. E. G. P. Beckwith, 3d. Artillery, F. W. Egloffstein, Topographer for the route, 1855.

For the technically and geographically inclined… Joe Edmon at Genealogy Blog vented his frustration with maps saved in what I’m assuming is the MrSid image format.

When I first encountered MrSid files at the Library of Congress I was perplexed, until I started using the MrSID Standalone Viewer. I now download the .sid file open it with this application, zoom into the level I like and then choose export from the file menu. Whola and editable .tif file.

I agree with Joe that life would be much easier with access to .jpg images of the maps, but .sid files compress at a much higher quality/compression ratio than any other format I’m aware of.

I can’t find this the viewer on the LizardTech’s website, but a quick search on google points you to Steve Jackson’s .Mac site (look under Genealogy files).

Disclaimer: I run the MrSid viewer under Classic on Mac OS X. Mileage with windows may vary.

Now if I could just figure out how to convert 32 bit tif files from seamless.usgs.gov. 😉