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1939 Map of Bluff City

Name: 1939 Topographic Map of Bluff City
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1954
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1954

About this map

Bluff City and the surrounding river bottomlands are captured here in a 1939 Tennessee Valley Authority field examination, just as the region’s landscape began to shift. The confluence of the South Fork Holston River and the Watauga River dictates the settlement patterns, with family-named mills and small farming communities dotting the banks. Local infrastructure is anchored by the Southern railroad and the Andrew Johnson Highway, which cuts a straight path through Piney Flats.

Genealogists and local historians will find significant detail in the placement of rural institutions, from New Bethel and Rocky Mount to numerous one-room schools like Enterprise Sch and Watauga Flats Sch. The map also identifies industrial remnants of an earlier era, including Shaver Mill and Galloway Mill, alongside modern aviation markers like the Airway Radio Beacon, reflecting a period where 19th-century river power met 20th-century transportation.