GNIS Website
Help Information


Enter a name in the top "Identifying Name" box and hit
the "Submit Query" button.

Select the state in the 2nd box pulldown and hit the
"Submit Query" button.

Select the county in the 3nd box pulldown.

Then select one to 3 check boxes for feature types and  
hit the "Do this Last" button.

The results are shown at the bottom of the page.  The 
main output is a Google Earth file that can be downloaded  
that shows the selected features on an aerial view.

Generally the features for the selected county are produced. 
But if there are not a whole lot of a certain kind of feature,
the entire state for those features is included.  The text at the
bottom of the page will say if the entire state is included.

Known issues include:

  • HI (Hawaii) lat/longs appear to be wrong since NAD27 was used
    for the the entire country.  HI lat/longs were not converted to the HI
    coordinate system.
  • "Stream" features lat/longs are the mouth of the stream.


    The counties for AK (Alaska) have been fixed to some extent.
    That is no longer a major issue.

    It is not necessary to enter any E-mail or legible name if you don't want
    to, but we encourage using your e-mail so we can help get the information
    you desire.  We do not give out the e-mail addresses to anyone else.

    You will need to download and install Google Earth to view the KML files:
    http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/
    It is free.

    If you find it frustrating to get the  information you need, or you want
    a bunch of counties put together, it is strongly recommended that you
    contact us at the e-mail listed below.  We can probably put together
    what you need in short order.  Just ask for it.

    The data supplied by this webpage is freely avaiable at:
    GNIS Website
    but not in Google Earth format supplied here.  Also, there is other
    information added in some cases, especially on mines.

    This website covers the 50 US states only. 

    If a feature name on the Google Earth map has a "~" in front of it,  
    that means the location is approximate, but probably within 0.25 miles
    of the correct location.

    If a feature name on the Google Earth map has a "~~" in front of it,  
    that means the location is very rough and could be off by many miles

    You might be wondering why a school or church you know about is not
    listed here. The GNIS database contains mostly older schools and churches.
    Many are the one-room schoolhouses of the 1940's, 1950's, etc.
    Newer records are added from time to time, but not very quickly.


    Send any comments or questions to
    gnisinfo@mflan.com