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1957 Map of Colony

Name: 1957 Topographic Map of Colony
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1959
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1959

About this map

The Belle Fourche River snakes through this high-plains landscape where the borders of Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota converge. In the late 1950s, the area around Colony served as a specialized industrial corridor, evidenced by the numerous Clay Pits and the Bentonite Spur along the Chicago and North Western rail line. This infrastructure supported the extraction of bentonite clay, a significant local industry that shared the land with long-established cattle operations.

Family ranching history is deeply etched into the terrain, from the Sloan Brothers Ranch in the north to the VVV Ranch (Aband) near the river. The map records a transition in rural education and land use, noting the Harold Sch and a series of named holdings like the Raber Ranch and Tope Ranch. Between the watercourses of Crow Creek and Lone Tree Creek, the survey captures a specific era of Western resource extraction and homesteading before further modernization.