Thread by @cubsjaw

been deep innawoods without cell/wifi reception for a while, which has been nice. but walking around with the map reminded me to share this good, free resource with frens who may not be aware of it, i'll briefly show you how you can use it:
ngmdb.usgs.gov

Clicking "TopoView" will bring you to a large map, you can pinpoint an exact location and it will compile recorded topographic maps that include that point. I picked a random spot in the Adirondacks (fig 1), and selected a map PDF (fig 2). You can zoom quite close (fig 3)

On the homepage you can also select "Map Catalog". Picking the same spot on the map as the last example, and checking "Use Area on Map" (fig 1), you can see lots of different reports. You can sort by geologic criteria if you need something specific, check out the range (fig 2)

If you are researching an area for a place to buy property, this is enormously useful to you. You can search for depth to water table reports to find out how difficult it may be for you to get a well drilled, for example

Back on the homepage, using "MapView" you can scroll to a specific area and view publications by their coverage area. For this example, I chose the same area, and found a surficial geologic map of that region

If you're going out into the wilderness, you should have a paper map. This is a great resource to get free topographic maps which are useful for land navigation/orienteering. It is also a great resource for researching an area for a homestead

Finally, now that you have a map, check out fren Pigwood's excellent Land Nav thread if you're going innawoods:

https://twitter.com/VonRuckenstein/status/1437080978531524609?s=20