Forgotten roads. Stone walls buried in forest. The foundation of a farmhouse that vanished 200 years ago. LiDAR terrain scanning reveals what your land has been hiding — features invisible to the eye, but preserved in the earth itself.
From Colonial homesteads and Revolutionary War fortifications to Civil War earthworks, Oregon Trail wagon ruts, and Industrial-era iron forges — every acre of American land carries the imprint of the people who shaped it. Most of it has never been documented. Until now.
On the left: a normal satellite photo — trees, a house, a yard. On the right: LiDAR strips away all vegetation to expose the bare earth. Suddenly, six historical features appear — stone walls, a sunken road, building foundations — none of them visible from the surface.
Actual GroundSight output — a property in Columbia County, New York. Left: standard aerial view. Right: LiDAR analysis with 6 numbered findings. The homeowner had no idea any of this existed.
Numbered markers plotted on LiDAR terrain, color-coded by confidence level — gold for high, blue for medium, gray for low.
Four complementary visualizations reveal features from every angle — hillshade, multi-directional, slope analysis, and color elevation.
Each discovery gets a full investigation: what the LiDAR shows, what it likely is, ranked alternative interpretations, and a field exploration guide.
LiDAR penetrates tree canopy to map bare earth with centimeter precision — revealing centuries of human activity invisible from the surface.
1700s · COLONIAL ERAHand-stacked from glacial stone by early settlers clearing land. New England alone has an estimated 240,000 miles of walls — most now hidden in forest that was once open pasture.
1600s-1800s · EARLY ROADSSunken lanes worn into the earth by centuries of wagon wheels. Many connected communities that no longer exist — some predate the United States itself. Oregon Trail ruts are still visible 170 years later.
1700s-1900s · HOMESTEADSRectangular depressions where homes, barns, and mills once stood. The geometric precision of human construction — 90-degree corners, uniform depth — is unmistakable in terrain data.
1800s · INDUSTRIAL ERAPerfectly circular leveled platforms where colliers burned wood to fuel iron furnaces. These features powered America's industrial revolution and are completely invisible at ground level — but unmistakable in LiDAR.
ALL ERAS · WATER FEATURESHand-dug wells, spring houses, and channels that powered water mills. One GroundSight customer found a stone-lined well on her property she'd walked past for years — LiDAR spotted it instantly.
1860s · CIVIL WARMilitary trenches, rifle pits, and camp platforms. LiDAR has revealed thousands of previously unknown Civil War sites — many on private property whose owners had no idea.
Every region carries different signatures. Your property might hold one — or several.
Shell middens, fish weirs, agricultural terraces, and continental trail systems. LiDAR has transformed our understanding of pre-colonial land use.
First-generation settlements, cleared fields marked by walls, and roads connecting towns that may no longer exist.
The young nation built roads, canals, and forts. Many were abandoned within decades. The terrain holds their shape.
Wagon ruts, mining claims, abandoned rail grades, and ghost town foundations visible in LiDAR 170+ years later.
Thousands of unknown military sites have been discovered via LiDAR — rifle pits, camp platforms, defensive works never recorded.
Iron furnaces consumed forests. Quarries cut stone. Mills dammed streams. The industrial landscape is carved into the terrain.
No equipment. No site visit. We analyze government LiDAR data that already exists for your property.
Tell us where your property is and trace the boundary on a satellite map. Takes about 60 seconds.
Our proprietary detection engine processes LiDAR data through multiple analysis passes, cross-referencing regional historical patterns.
Within 24 hours, receive a 15–20 page professional PDF with maps, findings, confidence levels, and a field guide with GPS coordinates.
Secure payment via Stripe · Any US property with LiDAR coverage
Secure payment via Stripe · Any US property with LiDAR coverage
Secure payment via Stripe · Any US property with LiDAR coverage
We've lived on this property for 8 years and had no idea there was a colonial-era road running through our woods, or that our stone wall was likely a pre-Revolutionary property boundary. The report found 6 features we'd walked right past. Now every hike on our land feels like an expedition.
I was skeptical — how much could lasers really see through trees? Then the report showed a perfect circle in my backyard that turned out to be an old hand-dug well. I walked right to the GPS coordinates, brushed away some leaves, and there it was. Stone-lined, maybe 4 feet across. 150+ years old, completely hidden.
Not sure if your property has LiDAR coverage? Wondering what we might find in your region? Have a question about a larger parcel or commercial project? Reach out — we typically respond within a few hours.
GroundSight uses a multi-stage detection pipeline to analyze your property's terrain. Here's what happens between placing your order and receiving your report.
We source high-resolution LiDAR point cloud data from public datasets covering your property. This data was captured by aerial survey — millions of laser pulses that measured the bare earth beneath tree cover, brush, and overgrowth.
Raw point clouds are processed into terrain visualizations — hillshade models, slope maps, and elevation renders — that reveal subtle surface features invisible in satellite or aerial photography. These visualizations strip away vegetation and modern clutter to expose the land itself.
GroundSight's proprietary detection engine scans your terrain data through multiple analysis passes, identifying linear features (old roads, stone walls), geometric anomalies (foundations, cellar holes), and landscape-scale patterns (field boundaries, earthworks). Each pass uses a different detection approach to minimize missed features.
Detected features are cross-referenced against regional historical records, land-use patterns, and known archaeological typologies for your area. A stone wall in Connecticut means something different than one in Virginia — GroundSight accounts for local context.
Every report undergoes a final quality review to verify findings, assign confidence levels, and filter false positives. The finished report includes annotated maps, individual feature narratives, historical context, and actionable next steps.
“Think of your report as a detailed treasure map — not a final answer.”
GroundSight identifies features worth investigating. Ground-truthing — walking the property with your report in hand — is where the real discovery begins. We're a starting point for exploration, not a substitute for professional archaeological survey.
Centuries of human activity are written in the terrain beneath your feet. LiDAR can read it. Let GroundSight translate it for you.
Get Your Property Report — Starting at $99