Here’s another one I found for your SoCalGIS info fix … and yes I am catching up from vacation! 🙂  -mike

In 1973, the United States Army produced training film TF5-4523 entitled, “The Mapmaking Process” which it described as explaining the “theory of mapmaking, and illustrates the methods and techniques used to produce maps; planning, surveying, compiling, and reproduction.” Retrieved from the National Archives, the training video is available in three parts for viewing.

Read more and watch the video posted on GIS Lounge:

Just in case you have not seen it all yet in 2013, The Lake Mosters of America map!

As 2013 nears it’s end, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year before I go on vacation!  For your viewing pleasure I included this cool 1950’s Christmas map which shows Santa Claus visiting places all over the world.

Enjoy!  -mike (Michael Carson, GIS Manager, City of Burbank)

PS – Let me know if you want to host our next SoCalGIS meeting in the new year.  Just contact me at mcarson@burbankca.gov .

In 1785 Congress enacted a law stating that the land in the new States were to be surveyed by a grid system consisting of townships 6 miles square and the said townships were to start at a principal meridian and its base line. These initial points were established as needed across the country.

On November 7th, 1852, Colonel Henry Washington, Deputy Surveyor under contract with the United States Surveyor General of California, completed a four day hike with 12 men to a point he designated and monumented to be the Initial Point for the San Bernardino Pincipal Meridian. Nestled at an elevation of 10,300 feet just west of what is now known as Mount San Bernardino, this Initial Point is both the highest and hardest to reach in the entire country. According to surveyor C. Albert White, it is also the only one that has not been altered over time by man. And, to add to its mystique, this point has one other unusual characteristic feature that makes it more unique – it is not alone.

The Principal Meridian Project was started by a group of people devoted to identifying all the base line markers in the country. The group finds the search for meridian markers as interesting as geographers do.  Click on the map below to visit their page and learn more about our Initial Point (or points!) in the San Bernardino Mountains.

With the support of the Friends at KB in 2013 helped acquire a beautiful atlas: a copy of the Dutch edition of the “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” (Theater of the World) of Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), published in Antwerp in 1571. The Latin edition of this work was published a year earlier in the same city and is considered the first modern atlas. Until 1612, 41 editions of this work have been published in several languages.

The website is in Dutch, but the atlas images are fantastic.

Some of the world’s greatest thinkers gained tremendous insight and changed the world simply by organizing and deciphering basic data sets in new ways.