US Places, Then MCP server
US places then: county on a date, PLSS land, GNIS names, old topo maps, post offices.
0 stars41 downloads/wk
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If you have run it, two minutes of your experience saves the next person an afternoon.
US Places, Then tools (12, 1 write)
write = sends, deletes, buys or postsRead from the package source without running it. The installed server may list more.
cache_statusReport this session's live calls, cache use and downloaded datasets. No network call.
county_atWhich county held a point on a date, with the act that made it so.
county_historyEvery version of one county: when it was created, from what, and each change.
find_land_entry_fileFrom a land patent to the case file behind it: which file, where, and the search to run.
find_place_nameFind a named place in USGS's GNIS: its point, class and county.
glo_linksBuild a link to BLM's General Land Office Records site for the user to open. No network call.
historical_topo_mapsEvery USGS topographic map covering a point, 1884 on, oldest first, with links.
parse_legal_descriptionRead a Public Land Survey description into its parts. Makes no network call.
plss_from_pointName the Public Land Survey tract at a point: township, range, section, quarter-quarter.
plss_locatePlace a federal land description on the map, using BLM's PLSS data.
post_officeswrite actionUS post offices 1639-2000 (Blevins & Helbock): which existed where, and when.
public_land_stateWas this state federal public domain, and if not, who granted its land? No network call.
Public scan report
scanner v0.1.10 · 2026-10-14 · same rubric, same numbers if you re-run it
- Code scan17 source files scanned25/25
- –Live reliabilityno gateway calls yet and no remote to proben/a
- –Tool poisoningtools not inspected (local package is not executed); not countedn/a
- Auth qualitylocal package, no credentials required12/15
- Maintenancelast push 8 days ago15/15
- Maintainer identityregistry namespace matches repository owner; GitHub account older than a year8/10
How US Places, Then compares
Against every graded MCP server, from our own scans and uptime checks. Updated after each scan run.
- Safety score
- 92/100
- higher than 95% of 48,255 servers
- Tools
- 12
- the typical server has 7
- Tools that change things
- 8%
- typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break
- Downloads a week
- 41
- more than 33% of 12,191 servers with a package
What its tools let an agent do: 11 read · 1 send or post
Install US Places, Then in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code
claude mcp add us-places-mcp -- uvx us-places-mcp
What the publisher says
From the US Places, Then repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub
us-places-mcp
<!-- mcp-name: io.github.ianderso/us-places-mcp -->
An MCP server for where things were, then. Records follow the jurisdiction that held a place on the date of the event, not today's: a 1795 deed for a farm now in Greene County, Pennsylvania, is in Washington County's books, because Greene was carved out the next year. This server answers the questions that decide which office to write to:
Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, which records every creation and boundary change of every US county from 1629 to 2000, dated to the day, with the act behind it. OpenHistoricalMap imported the atlas and serves it free (CC0); this server asks it.
- Which county held this spot on that date? From the Newberry Library's
R39W, 5th P.M." becomes a centroid, a bounding box and BLM's ids, from the Bureau of Land Management's national Public Land Survey data. A map pin becomes a land description the other way.
- Where is this land description on the ground? "E½NE Sec. 18, T84N
of a process. The file at the National Archives holds the application and, for a homestead, years of residence, witnesses and citizenship papers. The server says which file and which series, and builds the search.
- Where is the case file behind this land patent? The patent is the end
Names Information System (GNIS) names and places every feature it knows, including vanished towns marked "(historical)". In 2021 it dropped cemeteries, churches, schools, post offices and other built features; the server also searches the archive USGS kept from August 2021, and says which answered.
- Where was Mount Hope Cemetery, or Hines Corners? USGS's Geographic
every US post office from 1639 to 2000, geocoded by Cameron Blevins: 166,140 offices with the years they opened and closed. A post office is often the only trace of a hamlet.
- Which post offices were there, and when? Richard Helbock's list of
that covers a point, oldest first, with links to the scans.
- Which old maps show the spot? Every USGS topographic map since 1884
Nothing here writes anywhere, and nothing here keeps a family tree. It sits well beside nara-catalog-mcp, which can run the archive searches this server builds, familysearch-mcp and snac-archives-mcp.
This is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by the Newberry Library, OpenHistoricalMap, the Bureau of Land Management, the US Geological Survey, Harvard Dataverse, the dataset's authors or the National Archives.
Tools
The server publishes twelve tools, all read-only and annotated so for the client. Five make no network call at all.
Jurisdiction at a date
Federal land
Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.
Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.
US Places, Then: common questions
- Is US Places, Then MCP server safe?
- Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (92/100). Read the US Places, Then safety report
- How do I install US Places, Then?
- It runs on your machine. Copy the Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop config from the install section.
- Does US Places, Then need an API key?
- No secret keys are declared. It reads 9 settings from the environment.
- Is US Places, Then maintained?
- The last commit was 29 days ago (2026-10-06). The latest release is v0.2.0.
- How does US Places, Then compare with other MCP servers?
- safety score 92/100 (higher than 95% of 48,255 servers); tools 12 (the typical server has 7); tools that change things 8% (typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break). Full comparison.