I’ve ridden over 30,000 miles on motorcycles in the past twelve months. My butt reminds me of that every day.

I enjoy the hell out of it.  A motorcycle is an incredible way to move through a landscape. You feel the temperature change, smell what’s growing, and get a sense of the country that makes you want to see what’s around the next bend.

Now I’m trying to figure out how to tell the stories of those rides—and something about the places I’ve traveled through.  I did the riding. I’ve got things to say about it. But I’m going to need some visual aids.

I’m going to need maps.

That’s sent me looking into public domain maps available through the Library of Congress and the USGS.  I’m interested in what I might use to show where I went, trace a route, and explore how these places connect.

I’m starting with the North Carolina–Tennessee border around Roan Mountain and Elk Park and the country between there and Asheville. I’ve ridden back and forth through that area. Now I want to see what I can find on paper—and what those maps might help me tell.

This is the first time I’ve been interested in finding map resources online that might be public domain. 

First let me say something  about the USGS Topoview interface.  I think it was made in heaven.   

It allows a visitor to:

• find an area and know the total number of maps available for it.  
• see the publication date range  represented in the collection of maps available.
• use a date slider so they can filter on date.
• filter on scale. 
• quickly change the date and scale filters. The number of maps listed can change depending on how the filter sorts through the collection.

You can then select a historical map, see how it overlays on the modern Topoview map. Or you can just click on the old map and look at it in a separate window to your heart's content.

Absolutely the coolest interface I’ve seen to a map collection ever.  It seems to exactly meet my need. 

Linking to the interface might be enough for my needs.  But the site also allows for download, use and modification of the map image.  This is my favorite site in the world I think.  For a while at least.