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1964 Map of Burnt House

Name: 1964 Topographic Map of Burnt House
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1978
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1978

About this map

Oil wells pepper the dissected plateaus of West Virginia in the mid-1960s, reflecting the deep-rooted extraction history of the Ritchie and Gilmer county line. The small settlement of Burnt House serves as a local hub along the Grass Run valley, where many of the area's primary roads converge. This era shows a landscape where religious and civic life centered on rural hilltops and hollows, evidenced by the numerous country churches and cemeteries like Smith Chapel, Roseville Ch, and the New Mt Olive Church.

Transport through the steep valleys of the Hughes River and South Fork relied heavily on a network of winding roads and jeep trails that followed the natural contours of the land. Waterways like Bone Creek, Alum Fork, and Tanner Run dictate the settlement patterns, with homes and small farms clustered in the narrow bottomlands. From the Murphy District to Troy, the map captures a rural Appalachian economy defined by the intersection of small-scale agriculture and the pervasive petroleum industry.