Fly over Cassopolis, laser point by laser point

Cassopolis, Mich. In 2015 an aircraft flew over Cass County firing laser pulses at the ground, hundreds of thousands a second, and timing each echo. Every dot in the new model is one of those echoes, from the blocks around the courthouse: 355,650 of them.

The buildings and trees stand where the laser found them, 125,189 points of roofs and 230,461 of trees, over the bare ground of the town.

Press “1860 plan” and the old town plan from the county wall map is laid on the ground beneath them. Raise the heights, tilt it, fly around it, or go full screen.

Two towns share this hill. Tap a picture to open the model below in that year, or use the 1846 button inside it to step between them on the same spot.

Cassopolis today ›The town from the 2015 laser survey, every roof and tree where the laser found it.Cassopolis about 1846 ›The village of the lodge of E Clampus Vitus, rebuilt lot by lot from the county histories and the old maps.

DocumentedUpdated 23 October. The model now shows every tree and building point the survey kept in the town blocks, about 775,000, and some 760,000 more across the country from Stone Lake to Diamond Lake, on ground shaded from a survey grid one and a half metres apart. Buildings and trees each have their own switch. Gold pins mark the stops of our walking tour; a guided tour flies from Stone Lake to the courthouse square and out to Diamond Lake; tap the ground for its height; and the Sun slider casts every roof’s and tree’s shadow through a midsummer day.

Fly over it, and you earn the Laser surveyor badge.