King County Antique Township Atlas

This original King County Township Atlas from 1912 was published by Kroll Map Company.  These are original blueprint pages covering King County, and are bound by a "newer" black, leather binder.  Some of the pages do have hand written pencil notations as this was a "working" atlas in the real estate industry.  

Township maps (each page) cover an area 6 x 6 miles (as specified by the Public Land Survey) and are defined by the township and range coordinates mapped out from established meridians and base lines.  These maps were drafted at a scale of 2" = 1 mile, and often displayed parcels of land down to 10 acres in size.  Township Atlases were historically used for a variety of purposes; they showed land ownership, parcel information, property boundaries, roads, physical features, etc.

Currently, township maps are used heavily for historical research to study the historical development of communities, land use patterns, and demographic changes.  They are also used extensively for genealogical research to trace the ownership of family land over generations.