2010 Map of East Chain

About this map

East Chain sits along the eastern shore of its namesake East Chain Lake, an area defined by the precise transition from natural prairie hydrology to a structured agricultural grid. The landscape reveals a long history of land management, most notably through the presence of County Ditch Number Sixty-nine and the descriptive Burnt Out Lakebed, which point to a century of drainage efforts to secure tillable acreage in southern Martin County. For genealogists, the map preserves three distinct burial sites: Oakwood Cemetery near the lake, the centrally located Pleasant Prairie Cemetery, and the Calkins Farm Cemetery, which suggests a history of private family interment. Water moves through the terrain via South Creek and Little Badger Creek, intersecting a road network defined by numbered avenues and streets that cross the state line into Iowa.