Jul. 31—LEWISBURG — Floating Maps is local company that puts a modern twist on topography, virtually showcasing the history of central Pennsylvania.

An innovative product allowing you to use your smart device and see how a town has changed over generations has kept Valley residents Kevin and Megan Langdon busy so far in 2022.

It begins with a black and white print of a towns layout. Utilizing a QR code for their free application, a virtual reality experience with your device over the print lets you see how much a particular place or area evolved over the years viewing historical aerial photos dating back to the 1930's.

Their application has you cycle through different historical maps with touch of a finger.

"History of the town is brought to life in an augmented reality format. You can see how small everything was and then you can see it grow," said Megan.

State College, Milton, Mifflinburg, Lewisburg, Watsontown, Danville, Millersburg, and Conneaut Lake in Crawford County are available and she said they plan to add a lot more.

Floating Maps just added Sunbury to their database.

"We have those nine right now and plan to add more as often as we can get them done," she said.

Within the Floating Maps experience you view approximately 11 historical maps of that specific town. Beginning through friends and Facebook, Megan said they recently began selling the product.

"We have been brainstorming and building since early this year," she said. Kevin said it has been a long process and people are excited about Floating Maps.

Megan said they were brainstorming while creating a rug for their living room.

"Kevin is a very creative person," she said about her husband. He came up with the idea of an augmented reality.

"It morphed from there," she said. The end product Kevin visioned evolved into Floating Maps.

Kevin said there is a lot of moving pieces.

The topography maps come from several different government agencies and Kevin said he takes those images to make it more modern.

Many of their maps center around the Susquehanna River, according to Megan.

"I think it's so beautiful with the black and white and seeing the different towns and islands," she said.

Kevin believes this is the first thing of its kind for historical maps.

"We think theres a lot of potential. We're just getting started," said Kevin.

Megan said at this point they have a list of towns they plan to add when Kevin has time to make it happen. She said they plan to branch out to bigger places, parks, cities.

"Right now this is all we can handle," she said.

They began prototyping and working on Floating Maps in 2021 and said they would like to do custom makes for people.

"But we're sticking with our small Pennsylvania towns for now," she said.

You can use a phone, iPad, and Android devices.

The Langdon's met at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and lived in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Boston, and Jackson, Mississippi and bounced back-and-forth for 16 years as Kevin continued to create new businesses and products while Megan worked as a substitute teacher in the Milton Area School District.

"Based on cost of living, distance to grandparents, cultural institutions, and other factors, we chose a rural property outside of Milton," Kevin said.