Research Guides: Find Maps: Maps & GIS

Start with specific geographic keywords and move to more general ones, as needed. Example specific to general: ("Boulder", "Boulder County", "Front Range", or "Colorado").
Consider using a gazetteer to determine if a place you are searching for on a map has historically had a different name.
Try including "atlas" in your search.

Mining Maps from Colorado
This collection contains maps of various mines, lodes and claims in Colorado from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. These maps come from a variety of creators, including private publishers and US government agencies.
Boulder Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (Digital Collection)
You can search for a specific city (keyword search: "[city name] sanborn maps") or browse by doing a title search for "sanborn fire insurance maps colorado." Limit your results to the map format on the left hand side.The collection maps approximately 560 cities, beginning in 1883 and ending in 1937.
Historical Aerial Maps of Colorado
This collection contains aerial photos of Colorado from 1930 to the 1970s taken by the U.S. Forest Service, photographs of agricultural areas for the 1940s to the1960s in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Elbert, Jefferson, Larimer and Weld Counties, flown by U.S. Department of Agriculture and Landiscor Atlases of the Denver metro region from 1989 to present.

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Consider using a gazetteer

A gazetteer is a place name dictionary or index used to search the history of a place. This is particularly helpful for learning about places whose names or boundaries have changed over time or for names with variant spellings. If a place name has changed over time, you can incorporate its other names in your search. You can search OneSearch with the name of the country or region you are interested in and the word "gazetteer" or "place names."

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