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1935 Map of Eldon

Name: 1935 Topographic Map of Eldon
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1957
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1957

About this map

The town of Eldon serves as the central hub of this 1930s landscape, positioned at the junction of the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific RR and major regional thoroughfares like Missouri State Highway No 52. The map details a transition from the structured street grid and rail infrastructure of the town to the more dispersed rural communities of Mt Pleasant and Aurora Springs. The southern portion of the quadrangle is defined by the complex drainages of Little Gravois Creek and Saline Creek, where the terrain becomes significantly more dissected than the relatively level ground surrounding the northern settlements.

Genealogists can identify several distinct rural schools and burial grounds that supported these early 20th-century communities, including Pleasant Hill School, Ginger Ridge School, and Salem Cem. The presence of the Electric Power Transmission Line cutting across the southern hills reflects the modernization of the Missouri Ozarks during this era, even as older settlements like West Aurora and Vernon remained anchored to the local creek valleys and ridges like Thompson Ridge.