1960 Map of Clark Butte SW

About this map

Highland, Odessa, Steiner, and Walker townships define the cadastral landscape of this 1960 survey in Hettinger County. The map captures a quintessential North Dakota prairie settlement pattern, where social life revolved around a grid of rural institutions spaced for a horse-and-buggy era that was rapidly modernizing. Small centers of community identity are preserved here, including the New Burke Ch and the Friedenfeld Cem, which likely served the surrounding farmsteads. The transition from early 20th-century education is evident in the numbering of local schoolhouses, such as School No 5, School No 3, and School No 1, which provided focal points for the dispersed population. This map, produced as part of the Department of the Interior program for the development of the Missouri River Basin, provides a precise look at the land use and topography of the high plains before further rural consolidation.