1919 Map of G

About this map

The South Branch Rapid River and North Branch Rapid River anchor this progressive military map of the northern Minnesota wilderness in Beltrami County. Compiled by the Corps of Engineers at the end of the First World War, the landscape is defined by an extensive network of drainage infrastructure designed to reclaim the peatlands for settlement. A complex system of lateral ditches, including Lat. 12 to Jud. Ditch № 25 and Lat. № 6 to Jud. Ditch № 25 Original, feeds into the massive Jud. Ditch № 25. This engineering effort highlights the era's transition from untamed swamp to surveyed agricultural land. While much of the terrain is marked as Timbered, several significant areas are identified as Opening, indicating clearings where development was beginning. A solitary Trail and the 14th. Standard Parallel North serve as the primary navigational markers in a region otherwise dominated by wetlands and nascent water management projects like Millers Creek.