I used to trash my old maps, now I archive every single one

Back in 2018, I was working on a project near Salt Lake City and threw away a 1987 topo map because I thought digital was all I needed. Last month, a client asked for a boundary detail that only appeared on that old paper version, and I had nothing to show. That mistake pushed me to scan and label every historical map I find, even if it looks useless at first. Has anyone else lost important data by ditching the physical copies too soon?

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corablack22d ago

The part about "even if it looks useless at first" is where I gotta push back a little. Useless is a strong word, because old maps have a way of becoming useful later, but only if you keep them. I think what you really mean is you learned to stop guessing what might matter someday, and that's the real lesson. Scanning them is smart, but don't sleep on the originals either, the way they fold and age can tell you something about the terrain or the surveyor's choices that a digital image just flattens out. I've had paper maps with pencil notes from some old timer that made all the difference for a job years down the road. So yeah, keep archiving, but maybe don't trash the paper itself just because you got the scan.