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1958 Map of Belleville

Name: 1958 Topographic Map of Belleville
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1978
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1978

About this map

Scott Afb serves as a major landmark on the western edge of this Southern Illinois landscape, which transitioned significantly during the mid-20th century with the creation of major reservoirs. The impoundment of the Kaskaskia River to form Carlyle Lake and the flooding of the Big Muddy basin for Rend Lake altered the local topography, creating new shorelines now preserved by Eldon Hazlett St Pk and Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park.

A dense network of railroads, including the Baltimore and Ohio and Louisville and Nashville, connects established agricultural and industrial hubs like Belleville, Centralia, and Mount Vernon. Numerous dispersed oil fields are noted throughout the eastern sections near Flora and Olney, while natural features like Emerald Mound and Berger Hill rise above the surrounding terrain. The survey captures the region just as these large-scale water management projects reached their modern extent, defining the geography of St Clair Co and its neighbors.