1943 Map of Dog Island

About this map

Camp Gordon Johnson dominates the northern shoreline in this wartime survey, situated along the coastal passage of Saint George Sound. This military facility was a major amphibious training center during World War II, and its location here on the Florida coast is documented in detail, showing its relationship to the Seaboard rail line and State No. 10. Across the sound, the uninhabited landscape of Dog Island stands as a barrier between the sound and the open Gulf of Mexico. The map illustrates the island’s natural topography and shifting sands before mid-century development reached this stretch of the Gulf Coast. For historians, the contrast between the organized military infrastructure on the mainland and the wild, surveyed terrain of the island provides a clear look at the region’s strategic importance and its physical state during the 1940s.