Given some limitations of satellite imagery for the study of land cover change, we draw attention here to a robust and often overlooked data source for use in student research: USGS topographic maps. Topographic maps offer an inexpensive, rapid, and accessible means for students to analyze land cover change over large areas. We demonstrate our visual-assessment based method using 1:24,000 topographic maps to examine urban expansion and surface mining shrinkage over thirty years in Ohio. Compared with alternative methodologies, the simple method we propose yields surprising robust results. The pedagogic potential of historic USGS topographic maps for land cover change research is just one reason to justify their maintenance in federal depositories.