Colorado Maps
This entry was originally written by Birdie Monk Holsclaw and Marsha Hoffman Rising CG, FUGA, FASG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Colorado Geological Survey Maps are available from the Rocky Mountain Mapping Center, Building 810, Denver Federal Center, 6th and Kipling, Denver, CO; Mailing address, P.O. Box 25286, Denver, CO 80225. Map dealers also offer these maps; Map Express (1708 13th Street, Boulder, CO 80302) is one commercial service that provides same-day shipping for all USGS maps.
The Western History and Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library has an extensive collection of over 2,000 maps, which includes explorations, surveys, railroad maps, trails, mining expeditions, and land grants. Included in their collection is George R. Erchler's Colorado Place Names (Boulder, Colo.: Johnson Publishing, 1980).
Good map collections are also located at the University of Colorado map library in the Benson Earth Sciences building, Boulder, 80224; Colorado State Archives; and the School of Mines' Arthur Lakes Library.
Guide to the Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps, 4th ed. rev. (Athens, Ohio: Shallow Press, 1974), compiled by Perry Eberhart, discusses an important aspect of Colorado's political geography.
Two fine sources for place-names in Colorado are:
- Blecha, Arvid D. (Donald R. Elliott, comp.) Blecha's Colorado Place Names: A Genealogical & Historical Guide to Colorado Sites. Denver: Colorado Genealogical Society, 2001.
- Elliott, Donald R. and Doris L. Salmen Elliott. Place Names in Colorado: Reference Guide to Place Names and Pointers to Publications with Additional Information. Denver: Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies, 1999.
