1975 Map of Cooks Springs

About this map

Cooks Springs and the surrounding ridgelines of St. Clair County are captured in this mid-1970s orthophotoquad, which uses rectified aerial imagery to document the landscape. The geography is defined by a series of parallel northeast-trending ridges, with development concentrated primarily along the lower-lying valley floors. The major transport corridor bisecting the quadrangle provides a stark contrast to the heavily wooded slopes and agricultural clearings found near Moody. In the southern reaches, smaller settlements like Prescott and Lawley mark the transition into more densely forested terrain. Produced in cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service, this imagery-based study reveals the exact patterns of timber harvesting, land clearing, and residential growth as they existed in the years following the expansion of the regional highway system.