Most Requested Capability Now Available: Draw & measure on the map

Study Area Map draw on the map example - cropped

Based on the survey last month completed by over 100 users, the most requested capability was to be able to draw on the map and save those drawings to your account. Well, now you can! In fact, you can draw points, lines and shapes on the map, save the drawings, and add multiple drawings onto the same map. And, as a bonus, length and area is automatically measured and displayed as you draw! Once you add drawings to your map, plus any other map layers you want to show, you can save the finished map to your account, and share … Read more

Action Required if you use the Custom Map tools on randymajors.org

Steps for Sharing Google Sheets

This message is for anyone that uses any of the following custom map tools on randymajors.org: mapBuilder: Color-Code ZIP Codes from a spreadsheet mapBuilder: Color-Code Counties from a spreadsheet mapBuilder: Add points from a spreadsheet If you do NOT use Google Sheets to create maps on this website, you can safely ignore this message. What has changed? The way in which Google Sheets spreadsheets are published to the web has changed. This website and many others used a prior version of Google’s API that is imminently being discontinued. What do I need to do? Fortunately, the action you need to … Read more

Quick Links: Individual County Maps with Townships

county map with townships

In case you want to see a map of civil townships for just one county at a time, here is a list of ALL U.S. Counties showing townships: Listing of all U.S. County Maps showing Civil Townships and Township Boundaries This will give you maps that look like this, using Champaign County, Illinois as an example: If you want to view ALL civil townships on one map, just use the Civil Townships map tool. There are also options to overlay civil townships on many other map tools, including in the lower left of the Historical U.S. Counties tool: If you’re … Read more

Quick Links: Individual County Maps with Cities

county map with cities

Sometimes you may want to see just ONE county with the cities also shown. For that purpose, here’s a list of ALL U.S. Counties with City Limits: Listing of all U.S. County Maps showing Cities and City Limits For example, here is Sacramento County, California: Sacramento County, California – County Map with Cities You get a map like this: Then, of course if you want a map of ALL counties (and optionally cities), just go to the County Lines or City Limits tools. Then, optionally choose the layers/settings in the lower left of the map: If you’re looking for historical … Read more

Quick Links: Reference Maps upgraded to higher resolution, include map labels

Texas County Map

The new Reference Maps section on randymajors.org has been upgraded to include higher resolution map images and map labels.  This applies to the following Reference Maps: County Maps of each U.S. State City Limits Maps of each U.S. State Civil Township Maps by State ZIP Code Maps of each U.S. State Section Township Range Maps by State Using Texas Counties as an example on the County Maps of each U.S. State page, you’ll see this thumbnail: You can click the image thumbnails on the reference map pages to go to the interactive map tool focused on your state of interest. … Read more

Quick Links: County Maps of all 50 U.S. States

Map of Iowa Counties

If you ever need a map showing the counties of just one state, complete with county name labels, you can find links to those on the aptly titled County Maps of all 50 U.S. States page. For example, clicking the Iowa County Map link on that page will take you to the County Lines on Google Maps tool already filtered to show just Iowa counties, complete with labels.  It looks like this: Once on the page, you can zoom in, turn on city limits and townships in the lower left corner, and so on. Also, if you need to find … Read more

Create a custom Color-Coded map from a spreadsheet containing Counties or ZIP Codes

The Custom Areas on Google Maps tool is being used by hundreds of people per day to create and view custom delivery area maps, service area maps and sales territory maps — helping many small businesses during challenging times. But dozens of people have asked if they could color-code multiple areas on the same map.  For example, people wanted to create a color-coded map to show delivery zones, real estate demand, all of their company’s sales territories, tax incentive zones, incident case rates, climate/environmental classifications and more.  Now you can! Just go to the new Custom Color-Coded Maps tool and use the … Read more

Create a custom area map based on a list of States or ZIP Codes

The Custom Areas using ZIP Codes tool has been enhanced so you can also use U.S. States to define your custom area map. This can be useful to show: service area maps sales territory maps delivery area maps other custom area map of any topic defined by States or ZIP Codes To build a map based on states, create a URL like the following: https://www.randymajors.org/customgmap?mapbuilder=true&states=CO,NM,TX,UT,WY,NE,KS,MO,OK,IL,IN,NY,VT,OH,AR&title=My%20Business%20Coverage%20Area Copy/paste the above URL and edit the list of state abbreviations, the title and the color to use. UPDATE:  This has been improved in August 2021 so that a long list of states will draw … Read more

New feature: DRAW ANY SHAPE on the map to reveal all of the Counties, ZIP Codes, Cities, Townships and more

With all of the Map tools on the randymajors.org Research Hub, you’ve always been able to click on the map to know what ZIP Code, city, county or Section Township and Range that you clicked on. Now with this latest version of the map tools, you can DRAW ANY SHAPE and identify what’s there! Here are the simple steps: Click the “Selection Tools” button on the left side of the map Select the shape you want to draw (line, custom polygon or rectangle) in the upper left corner Draw any shape on the map and double-click the map when you’re … Read more

Which U.S. states have which levels of local government…and why should I care?

This topic is more complicated than it sounds, so I’ll attempt to keep it high level. Whether you’re doing present-day or historical research about a place, it’s important to know which levels of local government exist in the state you are researching (e.g. counties, cities, townships).  Why should you care? It may determine which place houses the records you’re looking for The exact location often determines which local taxes are levied and which local laws are applicable  It determines who has jurisdiction for a given location (e.g. police, sheriff, etc.) In addition to providing some definitions, I’ll also point you … Read more

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