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1970 Map of Center Point

Name: 1970 Topographic Map of Center Point
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1972
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1972

About this map

Center Point sits along the southern border of Turner County in this 1970 snapshot of the South Dakota prairie. The landscape is defined by the broad sweeps of Spring Valley and Turkey Valley, where small rural schoolhouses like Norris School, Spring Valley School, and Sletten School served a dispersed farming population. This survey was conducted just as these small educational centers were becoming relics of a past era of local administration.

The topography is remarkably detailed, showing the winding course of Turkey Creek and several rural cemeteries that provide a genealogical map of the region's settlement. Sites such as Meldal Cemetery, Bethania Cemetery, and Turkey Valley Ch Cemetery are carefully plotted, marking the spiritual and communal hubs for families in the Daneville and Swan Lake areas. Fine dashed lines across the grid indicate field and fence lines captured during the 1968 aerial photography, preserving the exact layout of 20th-century agriculture.