Historical Maps

HIG provides high quality digital copies of maps which depict the landscape, built environment, and property ownership.  All maps provided by HIG are considered to be in the public domain (not restricted for public use by copyright laws) and may be reprinted for use in reports or other similar documents.
A complete set of historic and current maps can help answer these questions:

• Has the natural landscape been disturbed?
  
• What type of development has occurred?
  
• Who were the past occupants of a property?
  
• What types of chemicals, petroleum products or other materials were used, stored, manufactured or disposed of in the past?

Topographic Maps
At times the only map source for a property will be topographic maps.  These maps were first published in the late 1800s and now cover the entire United States.  Topographic maps show natural features such as wooded areas, lakes, rivers, wetlands and topographic relief.  Cities and towns are depicted along with individual structures in rural areas and man-made structures such as roads, railroad tracks, dams and bridges.  Certain land disturbance activities such as quarries, mines and ditches are often shown.

• HIG provides digital copies of current and historical 7.5 and 15 minute USGS topographic maps for the entire United States.
  
• All topographic maps are in color and include a scale bar, a north arrow and the year created/updated.
  
• HIG packages that include topographic maps are The Standard, Core and SkyView. You may also order topographic maps a la carte.

Fire Insurance Maps
Fire insurance maps were first published in the mid-1800s and were used by insurance companies to determine fire insurance costs.  These maps show details of urban and industrial areas such as roads, building footprints, building construction details, the building use at the time the map was prepared and the names of the building occupants.  From these maps you can note the location of wells, raw material storage locations and the locations of storage tanks containing chemicals and petroleum products.

HIG packages that include fire insurance maps are The Standard, Foundation and Essentials.  You may also order fire insurance maps a la carte in a product called Fire Insurance Maps Plus (FIM+)

Atlases and Plat Maps
Maps under this heading include a variety of maps with varying detail including city atlases, county atlases, real estate atlases, and plat maps that were created for counties and municipalities.  These maps may show property owner names, lot lines, streets and other features of the built environment.  Some of these maps are in color and some show details similar to fire insurance maps such as buildings and other structures, construction materials used in structures and occupant names. 

The HIG package that includes a search for atlases and plat maps is The Standard.