NEW TNMCorps Mapping Challenge for City / Town Halls in Texas!

The United States Census Bureau lists almost 1,200 incorporated places in Texas. Municipalities in Texas consist of cities, towns, and villages. Townships do not exist in Texas. 

As you can see from the map, much work has already been done. However, there are still points that need to be reviewed as well as some municipalities that don’t yet have a point within their boundaries. Please help us fill in the gaps! 

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

What does each point color mean?   

These colors are part of our tiered editing process and signal to other editors that a point has passed through the upper tiers and does not need to be edited again. Our November 2018 newsletter has an article titled Editor Roles and Point Colors that describes this process further. 

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Tips and tricks for this challenge:  

• Local Government: Incorporated vs. Unincorporated
• Possible Sources
• Proper Point Placement

Local Government: Incorporated vs. Unincorporated 

1. Incorporated places in Texas consist of cities, towns, and villages. Townships do not exist in Texas. 
2. See this Wikipedia article for more on the administrative divisions of Texas.  
3. The Cities vs. Towns vs. Villages article in our September 2019 newsletter also describes the different types of governing bodies and how to determine if a point should be collected. 

Possible Sources 

Remember to confirm items in a list with an authoritative source (e.g., the city or village’s website) before updating the map.  See the How to Spot an Authoritative (Re)Source article in our November 2017 newsletter for why this is important.   

1. The United States Census Bureau has downloadable lists of all the incorporated places in each state by population. Here is the list for Texas.  
2. The Texas Municipal League maintains a directory of member cities along with contact information and websites. 
3. Wikipedia also has a list of cities in Texas. 

Smaller communities may not always have their own website and instead may use Facebook or other social media platforms for their virtual communications. See the newsletter article titled Social Media as an Authoritative Source (July 2020) for tips on using social media to update points.  

Proper Point Placement 

Our November 2018 newsletter includes an article on aerial interpretation for city/town hall structures. This article walks you through how to identify which building to place a point on when examining aerial imagery. 

Interested in collecting city/town halls elsewhere? 

Our volunteers are AWESOME and have helped us to compile a dataset of these features throughout the entire U.S., so this is the final state to have its own designated challenge! After this, we’ll revisit some areas with a finer-toothed comb to make sure all features have been collected (insider's tip: some states back east such as Ohio and Georgia might be missing points for smaller communities...). In the meantime, we’re still collecting these features nation-wide so feel free to visit your hometown and check to make sure your community’s city hall is represented!  Note that only city/town halls in Texas will count towards this challenge.   

If you have any questions during the mapping process, reach out to us at nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov and we’ll be happy to assist!  Thank you for all that you do, and happy mapping!