U.S. Topo maps date back to 1884. Those were very low resolution maps at a 1:250,000 scale at best (4 mile resolution) and most were 1:500,000 (8 mile resolution) or 1:1,000,000 (16 mile resolution).
It wasn't until 1947 that the maps that we know today as "topos" began to be made. Those modern 1:24000 topo maps have a best resolution of 40 foot. Those were made until 1992. Most areas had several topo updates through that 45 year period.
Around some of the major cities, including Little Rock, there are a few earlier 1:24000 topo maps that date as early as 1935.
You can find and download every topo ever made on the Land Matters Topo download map.
Go to the
Land Matters Topo Search Map. Zoom in to your area by clicking and dragging a box around the area you want to study.
Then
Click on the "
i" tool on the right of the map.
Click on your area of interest.
In the window that pops up will be an row named
24k Standard Topos. Click on the link that says
Click for Historical Scanned Topo Maps.
A new page will open with links to download any historical 1:24000 topo made for your area.
There are checkboxes for lower resolution historic topos to the right of the map. Click one or all of those checkboxes and use the "
i" tool again and you will get more topo maps to download.
From this one map you can download any topo made for you area of interest.
Easy enough?
