By Joe Hadsall

jhadsall@joplinglobe.com

Charles Nodler, archivist with George A. Spiva Library at Missouri Southern State University, said a room that holds thousands of maps receives a lot of visitors.

“These maps are used at least once a week,” Nodler said. “Builders, planners, real-estate agents and others come look at these.”

The maps are mining maps of the Tri-State Mining District. More than 5,000 maps of former lead and zinc mines over the past 100 years are available for viewing at the library.

The data contained in the maps are valuable for historical, environmental and developmental reasons, Nodler said.

Now, the maps are available on the Internet for public viewing at any time. The library and the Environmental Task Force of Jasper and Newton Counties collaborated to create digital images of each map.

“From my focus, it makes the maps much more accessible to the public,” Nodler said. “It also preserves the originals from being handled so much.”

The maps are of interest to many, including Chris Chappell, coordinator of Jasper County’s geographic information system.

“Those maps are going to help a lot,” Chappell said. “Now that they have been scanned, it’s like we have our own copy of them.”

The maps were introduced during an open house Tuesday at MSSU. Nodler demonstrated for about 30 people how to access the maps.

Chappell demonstrated a similar system, which featured an interactive map of Jasper County. Viewers can select features such as townships, streets, water features and utility routes, and superimpose them on an aerial map.

Bob Kulp, director of the Newton County Health Department, was impressed with what he saw.

“It’s a great thing to have, but you can spend a lot of money doing it,” he said. “I’d like to have the ability to plot potential sources of pollution. I wish we had the money to do that.”

Jason Robertson, of the Joplin Department of Public Works, said the new maps make his job easier.