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1953 Map of Cookeville West

Name: 1953 Topographic Map of Cookeville West
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1975
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1975

About this map

The growing college town of Cookeville serves as the focal point of this mid-century survey, which reveals the expansion of the Tennessee Polytechnic Institute campus and the surrounding residential grid. The landscape to the west transitions into a network of hollows and ridges drained by the Blackburn Fork and its numerous tributaries. Small rural communities like Bloomington Springs, once a destination for its mineral waters, and Double Springs are documented with their essential social structures intact, including family-named cemeteries such as Byers Cem and Kuykendall Cem.

Transportation patterns are defined by the Louisville and Nashville railroad and the winding Old Gainesboro Road, which follow the natural contours of the Putnam County terrain. Numerous country churches and schools, such as Post Oak Shade Ch and Oak Grove Sch, dot the countryside, reflecting the era's localized rural education and worship before the consolidation of the late 20th century. Prominent landmarks like the Junior Military Academy and Pilot Knob provide distinct orientation points in this highland landscape.