1976 Map of Abernathy NW

About this map

Cotton Center serves as the primary focal point in this 1976 orthophotoquad, revealing the intensive agricultural patterns of the Texas High Plains during the late 1970s. The aerial imagery highlights a landscape dominated by a rigid grid of large-scale rectangular fields, punctuated by distinctive circular center-pivot irrigation patterns that were rapidly transforming the region's farming practices. Cutting across the lower-left corner of the sheet, the natural course of Blackwater Draw provides a sharp contrast to the surrounding geometric human intervention. This document captures a specific moment in the evolution of the Ogallala Aquifer-dependent agricultural economy, where the layout of access roads and rural farmsteads reveals the high degree of mechanization required to manage this productive but arid terrain.