We've built a house on 25 acres in a rural area. As we try to plan out where our pond and other improvements to the land will go I'm having a hard time finding up to date satellite maps. I've checked Google Earth, Google maps, and live.msn.com maps. None are recent enough to include our house, or even the foundation. Anything within the last year to year and a half should at least show something.

Can anyone recommend other places to try finding more up to date satellite or aerial pictures? If not, does anyone know how often Google and Microsoft generally get updated images for rural areas?

Ack, have you tried flash earth?

Flash Earth is great. Thanks! Unfortunately, none of the sources has recent enough maps to show my house, but this does give me a great way to check 5 sources at once very easily instead of checking each one individually. I'll definitely keep an eye on this.

Any other suggestions for satellite sources?

Check with your county plan commision. Some have their own satelite image sites specific to their county. My county (Hamilton) in Indiana has one that updates the images every year and it is available also to the public. It also has all kinds of neat tools marking waterways, topology, soil type maps, regulated drainage, utilities, and wetland areas. Maybe a google search of "(your county name) map room"

They use it to keep track of construction changes so they don't lose any time getting their increased property taxes from reassesment. I live in a very rural setting and laid a gravel path back to my pond. It wasn't three days and they were out here asking for their $20 driveway permit fee.

Sorry, they just don't update that often. Especially rural areas. The most recent satellite I have found of our place is from 2005 or before, and it is the same on every mapping site image provider : navtech, tele atlas, etc. I know when it is from because it does not show the hole the previous owner dug in the pond in 2006. The trademarks change, but the image stays the same.

Oh well. Looks like I'll just have to take measurements and draw in the house and missing newer features myself.

Thanks for your help everyone!

mapquest has photo's from 2007, but that is probably futher back than you are looking for.

Also any of you folks trying to sneak in my place and steal my fish better think twice. Gps and google data puts my address at the sewage plant south of town. They have two ponds there also but you might be disapointed at what you catch.

You may drive out to the local airport and see if you can't find a local pilot to take you up to take pictures. Maybe a cost you a tank of fuel and a few bucks but might be more beneficial.

What county is the property located in ?

If you google "Oklahoma Ortho Photos" this is the first site up...and I get mine from ISU's site. OK's and IA's were updated in '08. Good luck...

Ortho photos - OK

http://okcountyrecords.com/index.php

Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Matt Clark's "Ortho Photos" site has recent enough images that they show my foundation and beginnings of a driveway. The resolution isn't great, but it's definitely good enough to give me basic locations and distances to work around.

Thanks so much for your help everyone.

Any higher detail maps anyone can recommend would still be appreciated, but if not I definitely have something I can work with now. It's in Muskogee county Oklahoma, near the border with Cherokee county.

we use mapcard.com at our forest products business. They have 2007 aerials.

You might try your state's extension service for NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) maps. This was sponsored by the USDA and many states offer the 2005-2008 aerial imagery free.

We can get aerial photos from our NRCS office that were taken the year prior; usually around June/July. They are sometimes called strip maps. The photo quality improved dramatically last year; very cool shot.

Ack:

Nice thing here (ISU's site, anyway) is that I can flip back and forth between the past 4 or 5 years worth of photos...I can really see changes. Pretty cool, and glad I could help.

BTW...this is my 800th post! Glad it was a good one...

Matt,

Are you referring to the USDA gateway site? If so how do you view the aerials? The format of the files looks like it takes special software to view. Or are you referring to a different site?