Washington Maps
This entry was originally written by Dwight A. Radford for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Topographical maps for Washington are available from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). An online list of Washington maps for sale on its website can be found at www.usgs.gov.
Major libraries in Washington have been designated by the USGS as map depository libraries. These include Western Washington University at Bellingham; Eastern Washington University at Cheney; Central Washington University in Ellensburg; Washington State Library in Olympia; Washington State University in Pullman; University of Washington in Seattle; Spokane Public Library in Spokane; Pacific Lutheran University in Seattle; Tacoma Public Library in Tacoma; University of Puget Sound in Tacoma; and Whitman College in Walla Walla.
Several publications dealing with historical and reference maps of Washington are available to the public. Among these are James R. Scott's Washington: A Centennial Atlas (Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1990); James W. Scott and Roland L. DeLorme's Historical Atlas of Washington (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988); and Ralph N. Preston's Early Washington: Overland Stage Routes, Old Military Roads, Indian Battle Grounds, Old Forts, Old Gold Mines (Corvallis, Ore.: Western Guide Publishers, ca. 1974).
The Washington GenWeb Project has many links to Washington map websites at www.rootsweb.com/~wagenweb/maps.htm. The Secretary of State's Historical Records Search offers many historic maps online at http://secstate.wa.gov/history/. The Tacoma Public Library's Northwest Room has 'Washington Place Names' on its website at www.tpl.lib.wa.us/v2/NWRoom/nwroom.htm.
