A two-stage sample of airphoto prints and point sampling was used to examine changes in land use patterns in 53 selected counties that had grown rapidly and substantially in population between 1960 and 1970. Point sampling, 20 points per square mile, was used on a sample of airphoto prints approximating 15 percent of the land area to study 12 categories of rural and urban land use. This approach evolved from experience with different scales of photos, areal samples of photos, random traverses, and point sampling in varying combination. This technique, an inexpensive one, resulted in data that satisfactorily correlated with comparable data from other sources and provided detail on the dynamics of land use change.