1958 Map of Brinsmade SW

About this map

Butte Valley and the surrounding townships of Albert and McClellan characterize this prairie landscape in Benson County, surveyed in the late 1950s. The map reveals a rural economy organized around section lines and local gathering places. The presence of St Olaf Ch and West Minnewaukan Ch provides specific anchors for genealogical research, marking the social centers for the scattered farmsteads of Eldon and North Viking. This topographic study, part of the Missouri River Basin development program, shows a terrain heavily pocketed with small wetlands and depressions typical of the region's glaciated geology. The inclusion of the Eldon Sch further documents the era of small, localized school districts before the widespread consolidation of rural education, while the township names like Aurora trace the civic organization of the North Dakota plains.