Map Collections in the Marriott Library: Find a Place--Anywhere!

Do you hear about a place in the news and wonder just where it is?  Or do you want to identify what sheet in a set of topographic maps contains a given geographic feature?  You need a GAZETTEER--an index of place names.  Atlases often contain gazetteers so that you can turn to the right page.  There are very comprehensive gazetteers available for free on the Web.

For any geographic feature--city or town, mountain, lake, river, etc.--in the United States, search the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)

  http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic  

From the menu, select "Domestic Names."  The query results will include the geographic coordinates (Latitude and Longitude) and links to displaying a map of the place through various online mapping sites: MapQuest, Google Maps, USGS National Map, etc.

For features in any other country outside of the U.S., click the button for "Foreign Names."  This will direct you to the GeoNet names server from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.  Their direct address is:  

https://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html

There are also separate searches available for "Antarctic names" and "Undersea features."

Besides these U.S. government sites, there are others online, including the following free site:

 http://geonames.org

Not only a gazetteer, it provides satellite imagery of the location of interest.