historical Archives

Find over 300,000 mines, mills, and known mineral deposits with the new Mines and Mineral Resources map. Discover the history of old mining sites plus handy details about mine and mineral sites across the United States including Alaska, plus select regions around the world.

The USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS), provides updated data for this new layer available to Premium users. The map displays icons indicating the development state of the mine: prospect, producer, plant, past producer, occurrence, or unknown. Claim boundaries in Alaska that indicate possession and right to develop and extract appear as yellow polygons.

A screenshot of the mines and minerals resources map shows yellow polygons denoting claim boundaries with possession and a right to develop in Alaska

To learn more about a mining, mills, or a deposit site, select the tools icon indicating a location on the map. Details include the name, primary commodity, and development state. After selecting the tool icon, click the information button in the pop up to learn even more through the USGS MRDS.

The Mines and Mineral Resource layer is available to Gaia GPS Premium users. To access the map, visit the layers menu, select “Feature/Weather Overlays,” and then select “Mines and Mineral Resources.”

Dodge road closures, avoid burn scars, and find views unobscured by smoke using two new Canada wildfire overlays in Gaia GPS. Using official government data, we’ve launched two big updates to bring you up-to-date information about both currently burning and historical wildfires across Canada.

About the Canada Historical Wildfires Overlay

Anytime you’re planning an adventure, it helps to have all possible insight into the terrain ahead. Many maps show vegetation cover, but they often neglect to mention burn zones. Now, you can view areas affected by fire in past years with the Canada Historical Wildfires layer. The layer color-codes burned areas with a red color gradient. Brighter-colored areas indicate more recent burns, while darker shading indicates burns that occurred in the more distant past.

All data for the Canada Historical Wildfires layer is sourced from the Canadian Forest Service.

one example of the canada historical wildfires overlay and corresponding map legend — The legend for the Canada Historical Wildfires overlay. Gradient shading indicates how recent the fire occurred.

About the Current Wildfires Overlay

We’ve also added full Canada coverage to the Current Wildfires layer. The overlay previously contained only active U.S. fires. Bright red shading indicates actively burning wildfires. Use it to predict park and road closures as well as smoke pollution, which can diminish air quality, damage lungs, and conceal both views and landmarks essential to route-finding.

The Current Wildfires overlay derives its data from a variety of official government sources. It’s updated daily as new information is made available by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the Province of British Columbia, Alberta Wildfire, and the Government of Saskatchewan.

An ipad display, showing the Current Wildfires overlay in the Gaia GPS app — The Current Wildfires overlay is updated daily as government agencies make new data available.

How to Use the Canada Wildfire Overlays

Both wildfire overlays are available to all Gaia GPS users with a Premium Membership.

Look for the Canada Historical Wildfires overlay either in the Feature/Weather Overlays section or in the Canada section of the map manager. It’s listed as “Wildfires (Canada, Historical)”.

You’ll find the Current Wildfires layer listed as “Wildfires (Current)” in the Feature/Weather Overlays section, as well. Simply tap the green plus-sign next to the overlay to add it to your map.

On iOS devices, you can see the year and name of the fire—in addition to the number of hectares burned—by tapping on any shaded area.