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1966 Map of Amelia

Name: 1966 Topographic Map of Amelia
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1976
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1976

About this map

Amelia sits at a critical junction of rail and river in the mid-1960s, where the Southern Pacific railroad crosses the winding Bayou Boeuf. The landscape is a complex network of waterways and industrial infrastructure, dominated by the East Lake Palourde Oil and Gas Field and the Amelia Gas Field. These energy interests are overlaid upon an older geography of cypress-tupelo swamps and natural levees, evidenced by an Indian Mound near Bayou Black and local landmarks like the St Andrews Cem and Milton Water Tank Cem.

The presence of the Lily Blossom Cutoff Intracoastal Waterway and the Bayou Intracoastal Waterway highlights the region's importance for marine transport and shipping during this era. Small settlements such as Boeuf, Ursa, and Lake Bridge follow the high ground along the bayous, showing how human habitation in the Atchafalaya Basin remained tethered to the natural drainage patterns of the delta, even as large-scale industrialization through oil wells and radio towers reshaped the horizon.