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1961 Map of Forest

Name: 1961 Topographic Map of Forest
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1962
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1962

About this map

The Blanchard River and its meandering tributaries, including Potato Run and Ripley Run, define the rural landscape of this Hardin County area in the early 1960s. The village of Forest serves as a central hub, where the crossing of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads once drove the local economy. Evidence of the region’s agricultural and extractive history is scattered across the township lines, including numerous Gas Wells, an Oil Well, and a Quarry near the small settlement of McVitty.

For genealogists and local historians, the map preserves the locations of several country burial grounds and houses of worship, such as Earlywine Cem, Patterson Cem, and Oak Harbor Ch. The transition from the more developed village of Patterson to the outlying sections of Jackson and Richland townships illustrates the typical mid-century Ohio pattern of small rail towns surrounded by active farmsteads and resource extraction points.