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1964 Map of Girard

Name: 1964 Topographic Map of Girard
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1966
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1966

About this map

Burnham Creek meanders through this portion of Polk County, where the transition from natural waterways to an engineered agricultural landscape is nearly complete. By the mid-1960s, the prairie has been meticulously subdivided into townships like Andover, Roome, Vineland, and Hammond, each crisscrossed by an extensive network of drainage channels such as County Ditch No 63 and County Ditch No 112.

The Great Northern railroad cuts a straight diagonal across the terrain, passing through the small community of Girard and leading toward Wilds in the northeast corner. This infrastructure supported a rural economy built on large-scale drainage projects, evidenced by the numerous numbered ditches that define field boundaries. Local history is anchored by sites like Andover Cem and Hanna Cem, which provide quiet landmarks within this highly organized grid of Red River Valley farmland.