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  • Where to get old maps/history?

    I'd love to know where you can find old maps that might have old/unused Trails that could be explored.  I see references to them quite often in the forum here, but don't know where I might find them.  All I can get is the current USGS maps....

    Also, I'm wondering if anyone knows the history of Pegleg Falls?  I ended up going to Bagby and Pegleg Falls today instead of Whetstone Trail (still too much snow one the road for me), and it looks like there was some sort of building or something at pegleg falls at one point.  The fish ladder is most definitely man made, not natural, and it looks like there is some concrete poured on top of some of the rock in the river.  I'd just be curious what used to be there.

    Thanks

    Rob
    Where to get old maps/history?
  • Re: Where to get old maps/history? (#)
  • 4/24/06; 6:42:22 AM ¦ by Tom Kloster
  • The bulk of old USGS maps come from purged public library collections - especially land grant college libraries where the entire USGS map inventory is usually on file. In our case, Oregon State University has generally kept copies of most of it's historic maps, and you can look at them in their map library. But those that I've bought are ineveitably stamped by one library collection or another. eBay has made this search immensely easier than before - you just need to know the historic names of the quads that you're looking for. For the Mount NF Hood area, the USGS 30-minute series from the 1920s are:

    Mount Hood and Vicinity (and offset, special coverage map) Hood River The Dalles Estacada Mount Hood Dufur Mill City Mt. Jefferson Madras

    These come in vegetation and non-vegetation versions. I'm still trying to track down the Estacada, Mt. Jefferson and Madras 30-minute quads after all these years!

    The best part of eBay is that the sellers are often located somewhere across the country, and don't have a clue about how to price old maps. I picked up two old MHNF maps yesterday on eBay - the 1967 MHNF map and 1965 (original) Mount Hood Wilderness map for a total of $3.00! For the Forest Service maps, it's easy to search - just use the key words "Mount Hood map", and you'll pull up anything that's out there at a given time. The USGS searches require the keywords above.

    There are much older USGS maps that cover the entire "Oregon National Forest". These are rare, and I've picked up my collection in pre-internet days at auctions and antique map stores. I haven't seen many of these in recent years, but they are very interesting to look at.

    One warning: there's an outfit selling reprints of the Mount Hood 30-minute quad that are overpriced and deceivingly advertised as "original". They are not. The fact that they are reprints is buried in a lengthy item description, and easy to miss.

    I'll look forward to reading the response to your Pegleg Falls questions - I've wondered that, too!

    Tom Kloster