1958 Map of Concrete

About this map

Mt Baker and the high peaks of the North Cascades dominate this mid-century landscape, where river valleys provide the only corridors for settlement and transit. Along the Skagit River, the community of Concrete serves as a western gateway, while the Great Northern RR traces the valley through Hamilton and Rockport. The map illustrates a transitional era for the region's wilderness, showing the established Ross Lake and Lake Shannon reservoirs alongside the vast timberlands of the Mt Baker National Forest and Chelan National Forest. In the deep interior, remote outposts like Stehekin at the head of Lake Chelan and Holden near the Holden Mine represent the isolated mining and mountain communities of the 1950s. The network of trails and fire lookouts throughout the Okanogan National Forest underscores the era's reliance on manual forest management before modern infrastructure reached these high-elevation summits.