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Blog Entry 417 of 598 What's Going On
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USGS Mapping Center is the Mecca for map junkies

Contributed by: Brendan Leonard/YourHub.com   on 10/18/2007

If maps are your thing (if they're not, I've already lost you), the USGS Mapping Center, inside the gates of the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, is what you think heaven must be like. The building, first built in 1962 to house the General Services Administration, holds about 200 employees, and is a massive 16 acres of offices and warehouse space.

When Gene Jackson, Program and Information Specialist for the USGS, led me inside the warehouse during a tour of the facilities, I wanted to stay for a week. This is what bibliophiles feel like when they walk into Powell's Books, I think.

The entire United States was mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey, on 22-inch by 27-inch 7.5 minute topographic quad maps, each covering roughly square miles. It takes 56,700 quad maps to cover the complete area of the U.S., and there's a copy of each of them at the USGS Mapping Center. Usually more than one, actually. The warehouse holds hundreds of copies of the more popular maps, and about five years' supply of all maps.

There are 30 million pieces of paper here, and just the warehouse covers nearly three acres. From an aisle in the warehouse, the maps are laid out from West to east, California on the far left, and Maine on the far right. Along with the quad maps, the Mapping Center distributes hundreds of other maps, and more than 30,000 USGS books.

Who needs all these maps? Jackson says the biggest consumers of USGS maps recreational users, people like me, who buy maps to go hiking, backpacking and mountain climbing. Teachers, scientists, Realtors, depository libraries, the CIA and surveyors, also contribute to the roughly $3 million in map sales shipped out of the Mapping Center each year.

Maps that don't sell or are outdated, the USGS recycles into notepads, copy machine paper, or, free "wrapping paper" for the holidays. The staff had a hard time keeping up with last year's wrapping paper giveaway rush, Jackson says, even through the inclement weather that shut down much of the city just before Christmas.

Geologic maps, topographic maps, planetary maps, hydrology maps, water quality maps, and native American land maps are all here. Need a copy of a map titled "Earthquakes In and Near the Northeastern U.S., 1638-1998"?

"If you can think of a type of map, it's here," Jackson says. A complete inventory of the warehouse took a couple of years of employees counting maps by weight.

All maps are sold to cover costs, not for profit. On the average, most maps cost about $7; larger, classroom-size maps cost closer to $15 or $20. Shipping is $5, regardless of the quantity a customer needs shipped. The Map Sales store at the front of the building holds hundreds of maps, including all Colorado quad maps, and if they don't have the map you need in the store, it's in the warehouse, or stored digitally in the Maps-On-Demand department. (For online map sales, go to http://store.usgs.gov/).

For educational information, check out http://rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/public/outreach.


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Submitted By: Gene Boshell
posted on 10/27/2007 @ 1:01:17 AM
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I used to work in that building as a computer support tech ... I would sometimes wander the warehouse on breaks if the weather was nasty outside. And, yes ... it's like Powell's to book-geeks.
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Submitted By: Charmaine Robledo
posted on 10/24/2007 @ 9:45:57 AM
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I personally believe that people in the United States don't have enough maps, to quote a famous pageant contestant. :-) I'd love to tour this place sometime.
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Submitted By: Karen Groves
posted on 10/20/2007 @ 10:06:44 AM
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