Google Earth

Google Earth (www.earth.google.com) is a remarkable, free program. It's easy to use, it puts a world of information at your fingertips, and allows for some striking and visually appealing exploration of geography. While it is not exactly a GIS (Geographic Information System), it definitely brings the "G" in GIS to the forefront; "GEOGRAPHY". There are ways that GIS data can be converted to the format used in Google Earth, which is what we have done here in Clinton County, focusing first on giving users the ability to view scanned images of old tax maps for each of our townships and municipalities. Instead of looking a a bland, flat PDF map, users can now look at the same map in a "mapping" environment. Users can add multiple years worth of scanned tax maps to one session of Google Earth and compare one map to another to see changes in property lines and property ownership. Some of these maps date back to 1896!

There are some great tools available in Google Earth, such as the ability to rotate and zoom in / zoom out viewpoints, change the angle at which you view features on the map, and make one map (for example, a tax map) transparent, with a slider tool. Take a look at http://earth.google.com/tour/index.html for some features and functions to use.

Google Earth is just one tool among many that is now available for mapping and geography-based research. Enjoy it for what it is and you can't go wrong!

Note:

This in no way is to replace out property research web page that the Auditor's office has made available. That data is made up-to-date regularly, and is the best we have online for interactive mapping. If there are every any questions on property information, please call the Auditor's office at 937-382-2250, or the map department at 937-382-4335.

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Directly from the Google Earth Website - Computer System Requirements:

Minimum configuration for PC:	Recommended configuration for PC:
Operating System: Windows 2000 or Windows XP CPU: Pentium 3, 500Mhz System Memory (RAM): 128MB Hard Disk: 400MB free space Network Speed: 128 Kbits/sec Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 16MB of VRAM Screen: 1024x768, "16-bit High Color"	Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ or AMD 2400xp+ System Memory (RAM): 512MB Hard Disk: 2GB free space Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM Screen: 1280x1024, "32-bit True Color

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Sample Tax Maps in Google Earth

These are screenshots taken directly from Google Earth.

1997 Adams Township Tax Map Sample A 1998 Adams Township Tax Map Sample A

1992 Adams Township Tax Map Sample B 1998 Adams Township Tax Map Sample B

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