>  are they even updating maps anymore? some maps are so horribly out of
> date as to be nearly useless in the field. It amazed me that an agency
> charged with maintaining an accurate accounting of the nation's geography
> would be considered a waste of government money, especially as the
> geography is now so rapidly changing.

Many local governments now do this for themselves, so check State, County,
and other local offices for good up to date maps, with topography and in
different measures.

In New York state they have wonderful updates of the USGS done by the
NYSDOT in the 1980s and 1990s, and I believe they are still doing
them.  You can still get the old USGS ones from the feds, but unless you
are using them as historical maps then you are way behind as they were last
updated in the 1940s for most quads.  I am fortunate to have much of the
state in the old 15 minute series also, but now they are on-line anyway!

http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/nhtopos.htm

In Virginia I have no idea what is available except for the usual poor
resolution aerials from terraserver or whatever.  Yet another damage of
9/11 was the loss of access to the incredible 0.5 meter resolution aerial
images, infrared, color and B&W on the USGS web sites.

         Dan W.