Anybody know of a place for old WV maps? Im out of ideas...

[TrpnBils]

Anybody know of a place for old WV maps? I'm out of ideas...

I live in the panhandle of WV, one of the oldest areas of the country, and I can't find anything useful in terms of historical maps for this area that show homesteads and the like. Basically all I can find is a general county or tri-county map that shows one or two of the biggest roads and only a couple of towns marked. That's useless for what I'm looking for. I'm not talking about historicaerials.com kind of stuff...I want old (pre-1900)....

I grew up in Pennsylvania and only live about 15 minutes from the state line now so I detect up there frequently in the nearest county. Pennsylvania has a TON of old maps cataloged online, such as Ancestor Tracks and Pennsylvania County USGS Maps but just over the border into WV there is apparently NOTHING. I hate having to drive for 20-30 minutes each way just to detect older sites every single time I want to go. Sometimes, such as this time of year when light is limited, I just don't have that kind of time to put into a hunt.


Does anybody know any resources for old maps in West Virginia? I've looked everywhere I can think of online and have struck out...badly.

 

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[pong12211]

What about a county court house. Maybe they would have older maps and or at least older survey maps or something along those lines. Also maybe getting in contact with anybody affiliated with the railroads may also be a resource that could prove useful.

 

[mcl]

Can you be any more specific about at least the counties you are wanting maps for? I am completely ignorant regarding West Virginia geography, and Wikipedia has two separate panhandles listed for the state. If you are referring to the eastern panhandle listed on Wikipedia, I found a plat map for a county I selected at random that was dated to 1852. If you mean the northern panhandle listed on Wikipedia, I was able to find the world's largest plat map in history that literally shows the locations of the houses of every rural resident on the panhandle and detailed town plat maps in the margins -- that map was dated 1871. Here's an example from that map, showing Clay Township, Hancock County:



Let me know which area you are actually looking for.

 

[TrpnBils]

Eastern panhandle - Morgan and Berkeley Counties specifically. I find it amazing that more isn't out there considering George Washington surveyed this whole area and basically set up shop here for quite awhile. They say my town was originally the "Las Vegas of the East" because of its "healing" mineral springs (which are still a viable tourist trap today) so there's gotta be stuff around. I know a decent amount about the civil war history of the area (of which there is a TON) but the plat maps elude me.

What you've got for Clay County there would be a great start if wherever you found it had stuff for my area too!

 

[mcl]

1894 Berkeley County Plat Map (Use online viewer or download the .TIFF for highest resolution)
Map of Berkeley County, West Virginia / | Library of Congress

1847 Berkeley County Landowner Map (Was still Virginia at this point -- same instructions as previous map)
Map of Berk[eley] County, Virginia / | Library of Congress

 

[TrpnBils]

Thanks - I appreciate that! I went down to visit the Morgan County historical society this morning and picked up a couple of microfilm scans of 1867 - 1869 newspapers but they really didn't have anything in terms of plat maps older than about 1950.

 

[Loco-Digger]

This is one of the best sites I use. I use the Ohio Maps, but the link below ill take you to the WV maps. Hope this helps. Also in Ohio the maps from the 1870's show all the structures. I use the 1874 maps for my local area. It's nice to know that a property was lived on with a house back in that time.

West Virginia Antique Maps and Historical Atlases - Historic Map Works

 

[WVhillbilly]

Wv was Virginia not to long before 1900

 

[docweiser]

maybe a lead?

From 1886 this is

 

[docweiser]

Another lead from 1909:

 

[docweiser]

Another from 1911:

 

[docweiser]

One more from 1888:

 

[TrpnBils]

Thread is 5 years old 😄

Not useful to me anymore because I haven't lived there in 3 but hopefully somebody else can benefit. Keep 'em coming! I did find the WV Flood Tool map set online..... Shows property lines, owner info, AND age of the house!