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1889 Map of Canon City

Name: 1889 Topographic Map of Canon City
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1889
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1889

About this map

The Arkansas River carves through the dramatic Royal Gorge and Grand Canyon of the Arkansas at the northern edge of this late nineteenth-century landscape. To the south, the Wet Mountain Valley serves as a hub for both agriculture and industry, anchored by the significant mining and ranching settlements of Silver Cliff and Westcliffe. The presence of the Bull Domingo Mine and Bassick Mine reflects the intense silver and gold prospecting that shaped Custer County during this era.

Logistics and transport are dominated by the competing tracks of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad as they converge near Canyon City and Florence. This network supported a string of coal-mining towns like Rockvale, Coal Creek, and Williamsburg, illustrating the region's transition from precious metal extraction to the industrial-scale production of fuel for the growing Western rail lines.