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1972 Map of Bourne

Name: 1972 Topographic Map of Bourne
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1976
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1976

About this map

The Whitman National Forest in the early 1970s reveals a landscape defined by the industrial remnants of the gold mining era. Deep within the mountains, the town of Bourne stands at the confluence of Cracker Creek and Little Cracker Creek, surrounded by dozens of identified lode claims. This map is a critical resource for understanding the scale of extraction in the Blue Mountains, showing the complex web of jeep trails and pack trails that once connected isolated workings like the Columbia Mine and the Chloride Mine to the outside world.

Evidence of large-scale operations is visible south toward Sumpter, where extensive dredge tailings dominate the valley floor along the Sumpter Valley RR corridor. These deposits provide a clear record of how the landscape was physically rearranged to extract minerals. Further north, ghost settlements like Cracker Camp and Hanover mark the locations of vanished communities that once flourished along the Elkhorn Ridge.