1955 Map of Collbran

About this map

Collbran and Plateau City anchor this 1955 survey of the Plateau Valley, where agricultural life followed the complex irrigation network of the Updyke and Berthold Ditch and Landon Ditch. The landscape is defined by the massive rising shoulders of Kansas Mesa and the Peninsula Plateau, which hem in the drainage of Buzzard Creek. Local history is deeply etched into the terrain through family-named sites like Eagalite Cem and several rural schoolhouses, including the Parker Basin Sch (Aband). To the south, the map climbs toward the Grand Mesa National Forest boundary, a high-country transition marked by the Twin Peaks Bible and Missionary Camp and the isolated peaks of Old Man Mountain and Bald Mountain. The dense contour lines illustrate the dramatic elevation shifts between the valley floor and these forested highlands.