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1895 Map of Casselton

Name: 1895 Topographic Map of Casselton
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1961
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1961

About this map

The Northern Pacific R. R. and the Great Northern R. R. anchor this 1890s landscape of eastern North Dakota, where the rail network dictated the birth of towns across the Red River Valley. Casselton serves as a central junction, surrounded by smaller siding settlements and post offices such as Chaffee P.O., Myra, and Fleming. The landscape is defined by its transition from the flat glacial plains to the more textured drainage basins of the Sheyenne River and Maple River.

Evidence of early agricultural organization is found in the strictly gridded township divisions, where places like Lynchburg, Addison, and Durbin emerged along branch lines like the Mayville Branch. In the southern reaches, the meandering Sheyenne River creates a distinctive breaks landscape near Owego and Power, offering a sharp contrast to the straight-line precision of the rail corridors and the Rush River to the north. This survey documents the region's rapid development as a wheat-growing powerhouse during the late nineteenth century.