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The Mohave County Road Guide - a clever map book based on Township, Range, and Section Grid
Written by Glenn Letham
Thursday, 02 August 2007 I just received a copy of the Mohave County Road Guide from the creator, realtor Dave Kreitel. Kreitel noted that in his job, not having a comprehensive map system available has limited the development of the area because of the lack of knowledge of the areas. With much of the area (Mohave County, AZ) lacking in publicized spatial knowledge, Kreitel set out to address that problem by creating the road guide. Users of the guide will be able to get an answer to the question "Where the heck am I" and much more. The guide covers roughly 6,500 square miles in 46 pages. Kreitel spent roughly 2000 hours developing the Guide. this included 6 weeks of road verification by driving more than 10,000 miles!
At first glance, what I really appreciated was the way the user guide seems to be geared at Joe Average.. its simple to follow and anything "technical" (like discussing the township / range grid system) is explained clearly and in layman's terms. The author provides safety tips for the user and something I really liked, a very detailed explanation of the grid reference system being used.. in this case, the township, range, section - this reference system is used as a basis of reference in the guide and thus it is important for the user to understand it. The concept of section corners is explained and I'm sure that after reading the guide, many people will be actively trying to locate a section corner for themselves when they get out in the field - kind of like locating a geocache!
To help the user a very simple but clearly defined legend is provided. Major landmarks like schools, emergency response buildings, hospitals are labeled. Land use is defined by using a simple but efficient color theme so the user can easily determine if she's looking at State, Federal, Private, or Indian Reservation land.
The Maps By using the township Range grid system it is clearly easy to determine the distance between any two points. Map edges clearly lead to adjacent maps and I appreciated how on each map a FEMA Map number was referenced. I might suggest that in the next edition Dave think about adding a reference to a USGS topo sheet, particularly since these are easily and freely available for users to download from the USGS map store - recall the topo sheets are now served up in GeoPDF format which can be viewed using any PDF viewer or preferably, the GeoPDF viewer from TerraGo - See article Locate and Download free USGS GeoPDF maps using the Map Downloader
On each mapsheet road names are listed alphabetically with reference to a location on the map grid. Subdivision names are also provided, something very handy as locals will typically refer to a region using some local name or subdivision reference.. makes sense to me! At the bottom of each map a photograph of what the region looks like is also provided.. a very clever and useful addition! Finally, a small key map is also provided to reveal the exact position of the map location within the county.
Given that Mohave County is large and sparsely populated this detailed reference guide will be a real asset for anyone looking to buy property or visit the region. Clearly, at the heart of this guide is the Township / Range grid reference system. Kreitel notes that he's initiated a campaign in the area called "Know Your Grid". The reason for this is because with the county being so large and no detailed maps being available to law enforcement agencies (or the public) , it was commonplace for responders to have difficulties locating a house or property. Using the Guide, people calling 911 can reference a property address and a grid location... using this map people can easily determine their grid location... I might suggest that moving forward, a reference to Lat/Long also be included on each map corner to help people identify their precise location... after all, today many people are starting to use GPS-enabled cell phones which can provide a lat/long position, or users can also easily determine their lat/long using Google maps or Google Earth.
The map grid is based on Township / Range
The Mohave County Road Guide is targeted at the following user groups: realtors, new residents, tourists, land owners,sportsmen, delivery companies, emergency responders, and government agencies. In a region that is so large and with much of the area looking the same, this resource guide is truly a valuable tool to help people identify where they are quickly - and Joe Public will love it! For more information about the Mohave County Road Guide see www.mohavecoland.com - the guide can be purchased online at http://www.mohavevu.com/
"A new way of looking at Mohave County, AZ"
About Mohave County, AZ - 3 small cities cover about 120 square miles - 5th largest county in the US (13,300 sq/mi)
See more threads and details about Glenn's AnyGeo Weblog HERE The Editor (Glenn) started the AnyGeo blog some time ago and the threads are now also mirrored here at GISuser.com - RSS feed is available to add to your favorite news reader.
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I just received a copy of the Mohave County Road Guide from the creator, realtor Dave Kreitel. Kreitel noted that in his job, not having a comprehensive map system available has limited the development of the area because of the lack of knowledge of the areas. With much of the area (Mohave County, AZ) lacking in publicized spatial knowledge, Kreitel set out to address that problem by creating the road guide. Users of the guide will be able to get an answer to the question "Where the heck am I" and much more. The guide covers roughly 6,500 square miles in 46 pages. Kreitel spent roughly 2000 hours developing the Guide. this included 6 weeks of road verification by driving more than 10,000 miles!
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