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The federal topographic survey reached Fort Wayne late and at small scale first. The city appears on the U.S. Geological Survey's 1:250,000 Fort Wayne sheet — one degree by two, the whole of northeastern Indiana on a page — in editions of the 1950s and a 1984 revision. The city's own detailed quadrangles are the 7.5-minute Fort Wayne East and Fort Wayne West sheets at 1:24,000, the standard portrait-scale of the national series: first published from the surveys of the 1950s (the 1956 editions, printed 1958), revised in 1963, and kept alive by photorevision — the East sheet's 1972 photorevision is the one the county's cemetery researchers cite, and a 1982 printing stands revised 1963 and photorevised 1981. From 2010 the series continued as US Topo maps, digital-first quadrangles built from the national map databases: the West sheet's US Topo edition is dated 2010, the East sheet's 2013, and editions of both run through 2022.
Every edition is free, and free to use. The USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, served through the topoView viewer, holds the superseded editions alongside the current ones, so the 1956 and 2022 Fort Waynes can be laid side by side. On rights the Survey is explicit: all USGS topographic maps are in the public domain, with one narrow caveat the agency itself states — some US Topo maps of 2010–2016 incorporate road data licensed from commercial sources, which the agency directs commercial users to replace. For a resident, the quadrangles answer the oldest questions in this chapter with instruments: the exact elevation of the confluence, the contour of the Maumee's banks, the ground Kekionga commanded — the land itself, measured.
Sources: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection and topoView (ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview), Fort Wayne East (o41085a1) and Fort Wayne West (o41085a2) quadrangles and the 1:250,000 Fort Wayne sheet; US Topo edition files for Fort Wayne East (2013) and Fort Wayne West (2010) (prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com) and 2022 editions of both quadrangles; USGS FAQ, "Are US Topo maps copyrighted?" (usgs.gov), on public-domain status and the 2010–2016 road-data caveat; ACGSI cemetery pages, citing the Fort Wayne East quadrangle, 1963, photorevised 1972.