Overlay a Hand Drawn Map Onto a Topographical Map

Hi Lyn, does your property still have the original monument landmarks still standing? The biggest problem I can see would be the scaling between the two different maps. Have you tried scanning both maps and working with them in something like "paint"?

No, the trees and most of the original survey markers are lost. It has not been divided among my siblings and I, and surveyed. My brother has described some of it informally.

I haven't tried anything yet. Just looking for ideas and I'm too lazy to search the internet.

I just want someone to do all the legwork for me.

I can lay it all out on a grid, with coordinates and such, but just wondered if there was a way to do this that a typical anonymous poster could follow.

You know, someone with limited intelligence, like me, and the anons who pester us with dumb questions all the time.

Humm, well, I took the bait, hook line and sinker huh? I'd ask my oldest daughter how to do the overlay but she dropped her phone in the toilet and out of touch.

I guess your talking about your farm in Arkansas, huh?

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is paint or some photo editing program where you can change the attributes.

Hi,

I appreciate when you send a question you do as recommend all other not to do ! Great

Just 4 wheel it around the property and take the GPS locations of stuff you can see on Google Earth....use the scale to align a known boundary to at least three GPS locations....

You can't 4 wheel around this property's boundary. There are no roads, and you could not drive between the trees, over the mountains and streams there. Maybe on a dirt bike.

I could walk it, but I'm not there. Besides it's a hard walk.

I'm going there in June, maybe I will walk it then. Or not. It's just a curiosity anyway.

<edit>Yes, that's it. The light green is open pasture and the rest is thick pine and hardwood forest. There are houses and buildings there that you cannot see on Google Earth because of the density of the trees.

Did you try the time machine feature of google earth? It may not work for your situation, but it worked pretty well in some instances I tried.

Damn, I have seen that feature yet! I hope it works, I'm going to go back 60 years and start my life over again

Plan ahead? Instead of using a blank sheet of paper for the hand-drawn map, start with a topographical map in the first place.

I'll just print the hand drawn map on clear Mylar sheet and overlay it that way.

Roads, lakes and contours are all there.

Was any of the adjacent properties surveyed ? Then you could at least know the location of some of the beacons.

Trees may grow and fences may move, but typically roads remain in the same places for a very long time.

You will even find that if a road was moved there would still be witness on modern topo views, especially if you can enable "contours".

I'd suggest you track in on whatever TOPO map you have available and locate the roads and intersections. That should bring you close to match the overlay with what you have.

Second bet is to contact the local council/museum for scanned historic docuemnts of the area showing older surveys. (Maybe soldier settlement divisions after WW1 or maybe even earlier surveys for the subdivision that established the block that you have.) There must be a record somewhere of the survey that created the block.

good luck with the search.

Do you have access to AutoCAD? Their raster scan can import a scan of the map & you can scale it in AutoCAD.

I was going to suggest a photoshop solution, but it is pretty expensive. I have it for work, but I realize that the average Joe doesn't have it.

If GiMP supports the same 2D/3D overlay feature I would recommend using that.

If Lyn could obtain a high quality ~600 dpi resolution scan of his handdrawn map, a scaling and overlay feature in concert with USGS topo maps would be highly accurate...

...in locating his granddaddy's gold.

Pretty sure this is it....

Thanks.

I've been tryin to do the same thing, Lyn. I found that my town has all the tax property maps online for easy access. Shows the boundaries of my properties as a survey map would, lengths to posts/tress/walls etc. It does not show what the markers are just the lengths to them. I have the "plot plans" that show the original survey. I still need to overlay that map to a GOOGLE view to see where the house/barn etc. is. I think I can over lay them in MS PowerPoint if I can convert them to .jpg images.

Thanks, I think. ;>)

Yes, I was unaware of this map service. I looks very detailed. I'll bookmark it.

By overlaying the lakes, roads and some other very familiar landmarks, scaling and using the topo, and hand drawn maps, I should be able to come close enough to serve my purposes.

To answer another suggestion about adjoining property lines, this farm is virtually an island surrounded by on all sides by thousands of acres of Weyerhaeuser forest land, so there are no survey lines, except the benchmarks that define section lines. There are some other properties along the road, but none that adjoin our land.

Thanks to all the others who contributed their thoughts.

Well,

I've managed to print the hand drawn map onto clear Mylar, so now I'll play with scaling things and putting it on a topo map and also a Wikimapia map.

Thanks again.

http://www.bhacromwell.co.uk/gis_mapping_cad.htm

GA to ya!

I use the assessor's GIS service every day at work here in AZ.

Never thought to look on the county assessors web site where this land is located.

Sure enough, there it is. Well, sort of. Three of the 5 parcels I own in that block are depicted on the assessors web site.

The locations of those parcels mostly agree with the map. Those parcels having been described by the chain and rod method from landmarks, some of which are long since gone.

The other two, ??? I pay the assessment on them every year, I'll have to ask the assessor when I'm back next time.

Thanks!

Glad this worked for you!

Those other 2 parcels, could they possibly be in another county? If Arizona, it is kinda big! I know mine shows my property line across the street. So do take it with a grain of salt. And then...... Maybe I do own the street! William J. Le Petomane toll road, here we come!

No, they all adjoin each other, one having a common 5 acre square side, the other just intersecting at a point.

All in the same county in AR.

I can't seem to locate another property in another county on that web site, but its boundary's are well known.

GA from me as well! I looked into GIS for my area and was able to get all I needed in 5 minutes! Thanks!

Take a look at EasyGPS. I used to play around with this software for use with a GPS. I'm pretty sure the free version does overlays. It might suit your needs.

Thanks, but my Garmin died, and with the advent of phart smones, who uses a stand alone GPS?

I did this with a cadd program for some land my boss developed several years ago. He got a top sheet from the state geological commission and he gave me some rough dimensions. (The first ones I did were with pen and ink, later with the cadd program.) But he had pretty accurate details and later a legal description to work with.

First can you write a rough "legal description?" If so, you should be able to transfer that to a topographic map of the area pretty easily. If not, I don't know how to do it. If you can drive or walk the land with the top sheet in your hand, you should be able to get close by the lay of the land. My boss was a mile off on part of his land and it was easily visible by the grade and location of the river. Years after I showed him where I thought the east extension of his property was, he had it surveyed and my comparison to the lay of the land was pretty accurate. -- JHF

The original map was drawn from the legal description by my older, wiser brother.

Having now found the maps, I'll write or visit the assessors office, legal descriptions for all parcels in hand.

His is in Perry County. Are we getting close? -- JHF

Yes, close. The farm is in Garland Co. 7 miles east of Hot Springs, with a home site in Hot Springs Village, for the golf there.

And a little in Hot Spring County, in the town of Malvern, south of Hot Springs, which is in the county of Garland. Makes prefect sense, if your from Arkansas. ;>)

Got it! Haven't been in Malvern since -- last week! A while back my wife and I came back from the Village on 5. we stopped at Crows to get a drink and decided to go to my sons place at Lake Norrell. My GPS lead me all over the west side of the lake and I stopped and asked some guys if I could get to the east side from there "Sure, just go up here , turn..." Found myself right in the middle of the Saline river! Moral -- don't believe everything modern technology tells you. -- JHF

We're practically neighbors.

Yet, Crows I know well, but Lake Norrell was a new one. Had to look at a map.

Malvern has fallen on hard times, as have a lot of small towns back there.

Yea, with the Wal-Mart at Rockport and the 270 bypass, Malvern is just going to be a dot on map. -- JHF

There goes my property value. :>(

Thanks.

Since Assessor Maps are not real survey maps, a working surveyor would go instead to each of the relevant (County Records Offices) and view the actual recorded Maps, Plats (sic), Tracts, and Surveys, etc., (usually in the office of the County Surveyor) to get the real survey data, and plot it all on one of the better aerial photographs available on the internet, via one or more of the URL's that others have provided previously...

Then, you can write a spreadsheet to accurately calculate all the irregular areas...

Then, you can tally them up, and see if you have been ''assessed'' appropriately...

And, if not, you'll have a sound, engineering, basis for contesting such a issue...

Financially speaking, it could thusly be a monetarily ''rewarding'' effort for you...

Lyn, most county Clerk and planning offices have what is referred to as "Parcel Access" GIS (or similarly named software)) mapping of each land parcel in your county. You can access it for free. It will get you within the "ball park" as far as accuracy is concerned, but I wouldn't rely on it to build anything with or when it comes to subdividing the land......you need to hire a land surveyor for that. Depending on the their software, you may be able to either save a file or print out the parcel property lines and roads, buildings, other land features. If it allows you to print a map, then scan it later and import it into a CAD program....scale up or down to desired size.

You can obtain USGS "QUADRANGLE" maps (also known as Quad Maps) files online that will include pertinent land features and topography. Depending on the severity of the land slopes, the Quad map may have anywhere from 2-foot to 10-foot contour intervals. Overlay your two maps at the appropriate scale that you desire.

For more detail on property lines, recent sales of adjoining parcels to yours will be on record with the county clerks office, and there's a good possibly that recent surveys were conducted of those properties which may have been filed as well. Banks now days (depending on the state) usually require a "metes & bounds" survey of the parcel be conducted before closing on the mortgage or sale.

Good luck, you're going to need it! hahahahha

Thanks,

We covered most of this earlier, and I've got what I need. County Assessors office in my county has the GIS maps.

Why didn't I think of that?

Also, if the area is remote enough, you will be lucky to get contour intervals of only 20 feet, or more...