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1974 Map of Birds Creek

Name: 1974 Topographic Map of Birds Creek
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1975
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1975

About this map

The Fort Polk Military Reservation dominates this 1974 topographic landscape in Vernon Parish, where military training grounds and managed timberlands of the Kisatchie National Forest overlap. The map reveals a highly structured environment defined by strategic infrastructure, including an extensive network of observation points such as McNair Tower, Buckner Tower, and Roosevelt Towers. These lookout positions overlook a terrain carved by the Whisky Chitto Creek and its tributaries, while man-made features like Infantry Lake and Engineer Lake illustrate the specific military engineering of the post.

Traces of local history remain preserved within the reservation boundaries, specifically in the form of family and community burial sites like Watson Cem and Mill Creek Cem. The presence of an Old Railroad Grade in the northern reaches suggests earlier eras of logging or transit before the land was consolidated for federal use. This survey captures a specific Cold War-era state of the facility, balancing active military utility with the preservation of rural cemeteries and the natural flow of Birds Creek.