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1954 Map of Charleston

Name: 1954 Topographic Map of Charleston
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1954
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1954

About this map

Charleston and East Prairie anchor this 1954 Mississippi River Commission survey, which reveals a landscape defined by an extensive drainage and flood control network. The map detail highlights the massive New Madrid Floodway and a complex system of channels such as Ditch No 10 and Main Ditch, designed to manage the fertile but low-lying bottomlands. These engineering efforts supported a dense network of rural communities, where small settlements like Diehlstadt, Bertrand, and Anniston thrived alongside the Missouri Pacific and St Louis and Southwestern railroads.

Local life is recorded through numerous rural institutions, from the I O O F Cem to various country schoolhouses including Texas Bend Sch and Woolridge Sch. The river itself remains a dominant presence in the northeast, showing Browns Bar and the winding Sliding Th Tooth Bend. This map is particularly valuable for genealogists tracing family names in the Bootheel region, as it preserves the exact locations of neighborhood landmarks like Bethlehem Ch and the Catholic Family Cem.