Thanks for your response Martin. Now if there was just some way to get the USGS to print the UTM grid on ALL their topos. Perhaps a "plea" to our multimillionaire congressmen? Are you listening USGS?
I am looking at an old (1950) topo map and it has the UTM hash marks on the border. It was photorevised in 1971 so they might have been added then. At any rate, they have been around for 34 years and I doubt many people, myself included, had the foggiest idea of what they were.

For the benefit of those not familiar with these markings, they are located on all four borders of a topo map and are about 1 5/8 inches (1000 meters) apart and consist of a small number(s) followed by larger numbers. Map data in lower left hand corner of map says, "1000 meter Universal Transverse Mercator Grid ticks, Zone __, shown in blue." There are 60 UTM zones North to South worldwide. West Kentucky is Zone 16 and the numbers increase as you move East. Your zone will be displayed on GPS screen along with UTM figures.

As has been posted earlier several times, visit www.maptools.com for UTM tools and other map items including a good pamphlet explaining UTM. You can get the booklet and a plastic overlay UTM grid for $6. UTM sure beats longitude/latitude in degrees, minutes and seconds, something my mathematically challenged mind has never been able to completely grasp. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />