1963 Map of Ewing SW

About this map

The Elkhorn River meanders across this Holt County landscape, defining the topography of the Missouri River Basin during the mid-1960s. The settlement of Stafford serves as a central point along the diagonal route of the Chicago and North Western railroad, which cuts sharply across the prairie. The map reveals a land shaped by water and transit, where the river's path is flanked by oxbows and marshy features such as Learys Lakes and Chain Lakes. This survey, updated with 1980s photographic revisions, documents a rural Nebraska environment focused on the intersection of natural drainage systems and late-nineteenth-century rail infrastructure. Local historians can observe the fine-grained elevation changes and the specific placement of the rail line relative to the seasonal waters of the Elkhorn.