2017

North Carolina: The Old North State

Posted on 10/06/2017 by Nathan Lewis in New Content Releases

Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk

Today, we are very thrilled to announce that over 900,000 aerial photos of North Carolina are now available to search and view online. North Carolina is the 29th largest state with 48,718 square miles of land. There are 1,500 lakes of 10 acres or more and 37,000 miles of freshwater streams. Roughly 8.1 million people live in the Tar Heel State. Tar Heel? You might be asking what is a Tar Heel and how is that the UNC mascot? The origin of this nickname is mysterious, it supposedly came from the days when NC produced a lot of tar, and someone saw a set of footprints made by someone who had stepped in the tar. North Caroline has a very old and rich history, my personal experience with this was a family trip to the Biltmore Estate when I was young. The Biltmore Estate in Ashville is America’s largest home and includes a 255-room chateau, an award-winning winery, and extensive gardens. I did not get to enjoy the wine but I did love the underground indoor bowling alley.

I feel I am not doing The Old North State justice without at least some key points form it’s very significant American history. The first English colony in America was located on Roanoke Island. Walter Raleigh founded it. The colony mysteriously vanished with no trace except for the word “Croatoan” scrawled on a nearby tree. Many people believe that North Carolina was the first state to declare independence from England with the Mecklenburg Declaration of 1775. North Carolina is the 12th state to ratify the United States Constitution on, Nov. 21st, 1789. In 1903 the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered flight by man at Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk. The Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawks now commemorates their achievement. This is also how the state claimed its slogan “First in Flight”. Finally, Babe Ruth hit his first home run in Fayetteville on March 7, 1914.

North Carolina is one of the most diversified agriculture states in the nation. The state’s 50,200 farmers grow over 80 different commodities, utilizing 8.4 million of the state’s 31 million acres. The average farm size is 168 acres and North Carolina leads the nation in furniture, tobacco, sweet potato, brick, and textile production. The state ranks seventh nationally in farm profits with a net farm income of over $2.8 billion. With over 900,000 photos of these rural farms, we hope to preserve and share this history with you. Hopefully, you will find a piece of your history here too.

New York: The Untold Story

Posted on 07/07/2017 by Nathan Lewis in New Content Releases

Family farm in Cortland County, just north of Pitcher NY

Today, we are excited to announce that over 400,000 aerial photos of New York are now available to view online. When I think of New York mainly what comes to mind is all the sights and attractions of New York City itself. The City of New York is one of the main cultural centers of the world with a little over 8 million people speaking over 800 languages. It has the Empire State Building, The Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and Central Park just to name a few of the many attractions. All that the City of New York has to offer is just a small part, roughly 0.6% of the total area of New York. The real story and what keeps New York alive is its agriculture.

New York is a leading agricultural state, worth $6.36 billion in 2015. It is ranked number one in the production of Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, and Sour Cream as well as number two in Apples, Maple Syrup, and Pumpkins. Dairying is New York’s most important farming activity with over 18,000 cattle farms. Milk sales account for 50% of the total agricultural receipts. The oldest cattle ranch in the US was started in 1747 at Montauk on Long Island. About 23% of New York State’s land area, or 7 million acres, is farmland. This Industry has nearly 36,000 family farms producing some of the world’s best food. With over 400,000 images now available we hope to share this untold story of New York through our images and your stories connected to them. We hope you come take a look and experience New York’s rich rural history.

Missouri: "Show Me" From Above

Posted on 05/08/2017 by Nathan Lewis in New Content Releases

Fort Osage an early 19th century factory trading post, 1990

Today, we’re excited to announce that 519,989 aerial photos of Missouri are now available to view online. The vast majority of these images depict the importance of small family farms in Missouri’s rich history. We hope that you’ll find some family history in these photos and share them with others.

The state of Missouri was named after a tribe of Sioux Indians that lived in the state called the Missouris. The word “Missouri” means “wooden canoe people”. Missouri is known as the “Show Me State” which is an expression that may have began in 1899 when Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver said, “I’m from Missouri and you’ve got to show me.”

Missouri has a rich history and is home to many landmarks and important historic events. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the tallest man-made national monument in the United States. It is 630 feet wide and stands 630 feet tall. The Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis is the largest beer producing plant in the United States. This brewery produces Budweiser, which is the best selling beer brand in the world. St. Louis was also the host of the first Olympic Games ever held in the United States. At the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, the ice cream cone was invented. An ice cream vendor ran out of cups and asked a waffle vendor to help by rolling up waffles to hold ice cream. This fair also introduced some other favorite sweets such as cotton candy, iced tea, and Dr. Pepper.

While Missouri has a rich history for many things, none is more important than its farming industry which has been at the heart of many Missouri families. The Show Me State is home to more than 100,000 farms, covering two-thirds of the state’s land acreage, which comes to nearly 30 million acres. On average, Missouri farms are about 269 acres and nearly all are family owned and operated. Soybeans are the most produced food commodity in Missouri followed by corn and cattle. The soybean industry generates $4.3 billion dollars for Missouri and all the farming combined generates over $10 billion dollars.

Minnesota: Big Names, Big Things, Big Farms

Posted on 03/21/2017 by Nathan Lewis in New Content Releases

Jolly Green Giant, 1980

Minnesota is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” but it actually has 11,842 Lakes! Perhaps “10,000” just rolls off the tongue a bit better! These lakes make up 90,000 miles of shoreline, which is more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined. This is just the beginning of “big” in Minnesota.

Big Names

The Legendary poet, songwriter, and musical genius Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941. Bob Dylan has sold well over 40 million albums and he is also one of my personal favorites. Next up, Before he was Prince, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, and then Prince again, singer/songwriter and music legend Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958. He has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time.

Big Things

You may not know this, but Minnesota is home to some of the largest “things” in the world. The Mall of America in Bloomington is the size of 78 football fields – 9.5 million square feet. This is the second largest mall in America. The world’s largest ball of twine built by a single person sits in Darwin, weighing in at 17,400 pounds and twelve feet in diameter. The world’s largest pelican, Pelican Pete is a concrete statue that stands 15.5 feet tall at the base of the Mill Pond dam in downtown Pelican Rapids. The world’s largest “kneeling statue,” Paul Bunyan Statue is in Akeley and stands 20 feet tall. The brand “Green Giant Great Big Tender Peas” was created in 1925 and company mascot Jolly Green Giant was born. He stands tall and green in Blue Earth at 55.5 feet tall.

Big Farms

Minnesota is the 5th ranked state for agricultural production. The annual economic activity generated in Minnesota related to agriculture is more than 75 billion dollars. There are 26 million acres of farmland in Minnesota totalling 74,542 farms. The average farm size is 349 acres and they produce corn, soybeans, hogs, dairy products and cattle predominantly. Our photos at Vintage Aerial depict many of these rural homes and farms, and we are happy to announce that we have just made 442,000 photos in Minnesota available. You can search these photos by a current address or by a map location. We hope you enjoy!

Vintage Aerial at the National Center for Nature Photography

Posted on 03/14/2017 by Nathan Lewis in Company Updates

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The Center for Nature Photography at Secor Metropark, Toledo, OH

At Vintage Aerial we are passionately committed to sharing our archive of more than 20 million aerial photographs of rural America. Whether you want rediscover your past or learn more about your family history or just see your part of the world in a new way, we want to help you make those connections. So we were thrilled when the Toledo Metroparks asked us about participating in the aerial-photography exhibit at the National Center for Nature Photography, located at Secor Metropark in western Lucas County. We learned that the Center wanted to create an exhibit that would showcase the power of contemporary aerial photography, using developing drone technology to provide new and intriguing perspectives on familiar landscapes. And we knew right away that our historical aerial photographs, representing more than a half century of our nation’s rural history, could enhance the exhibit by providing depth and historical perspective on the parklands and surrounding areas the Metroparks wanted to feature.

So of course we said yes. Working with the park systems’ expert staff, we explored the locations in and around Toledo that they wanted to highlight. Once we had those locations, we used our state-of-the-art geo-location system and our associated technologies to identify within our vast collection exactly the right pictures that would help tell this wonderful story - how the rich and varied spaces and the accompanying ecologies of our region have changed over time; how buildings have appeared and changed; and how, throughout it all, the Oak Openings region has survived and thrived as a place for healthy and natural living. We donated photographic prints to the exhibit to ensure that the Metroparks achieved its artistic and educational goals of showing visitors something new and beautiful about the past, the present, and the promising future.

You can see the results in the pictures we display here. And better, you can see the whole exhibit at the National Center for Nature Photography at Secor Metropark,10001 W Central Avenue, Berkey, OH 43504.

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The Center for Nature Photography at Secor Metropark, Toledo, OH in 1970 (left) and 2017 (right) photographed via drone by Toledo Aerial Media

Kentucky: Bourbon Country

Posted on 01/10/2017 by Nathan Lewis in New Content Releases

Maker's Mark Distillery, 1979

From horse racing and Bourbon Country, to the culture of Appalachia, Civil War significance and Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky is a state with deep traditions and important history. Kentucky has had a strong agricultural community with nearly 85,000 farms in 2011, that averaged 164 acres. Horses were the leading source of farm income for Kentucky farmers. Kentucky is home to some of the world’s leading thoroughbred farms and thoroughbred auctions. Kentucky still leads the nation in burley tobacco production and beef cattle east of the Mississippi River. Located in the south central United States along the west side of the Appalachian Mountains, Kentucky ranks 37th in land size, with 39,732 square miles.

Today we are excited to be releasing 385,000 aerial photos from Kentucky. Nearly all these photos are searchable by address or by map location. It has been an interesting journey viewing the many types of farm photos as the geocoding process took shape. Hopefully there are many memories and stories waiting to be shared and cherished within these amazing images.