Mapping?

[DirtyDigger48]

Hope I posted this in the right place. Ok using a old topo map I have found a old home site, it's close to a saddle. With the contour lines turned on they are shifted, Where do I start looking?

 

[BobOso]

The little squares are not necessarily a house, they could have been a building (shed,barn, cabin etc).
Your next step would be to put it on google earth to narrow your search.You can find the same topo in a klm file and it will save you time.https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/

 

[Tinhorn3]

shifted lines are going up or down hills or ridges, etc. each is up/down each 10 feet or 20 feet elevations. The map tells your elevations on it - somewhere the feet. Small lines together means it is deep, etc. if it has color, green means woods, white is fields. some maps don't have color like that. To tell if it's up or down lines, look for BLUE lines [are creeks] the lines or going up the hill, you can see next up to the ridge then more will go down the ridge.

The black square's usually houses & open squares are barns or buildings not living in.

get a map of you live in or who ever has out town & figured what yo are seeing

what did I leave out???

 

[Rock Jock]

I think most modern topographic maps use hatchure marks (like teeth) on the innermost closed contour to indicate a closed basin. That means that if you don't see hatchure marks on the innermost closed contour, you are actually seeing the depiction of an elevated area such as a hill. If you do a computer search on "usgs topo map legend key" and then look at the imagery that results from the search, you can view various vintages of legend keys to understand the symbology on the USGS topo maps. The closer the contour lines are to each other, the steeper the terrain.