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1901 Map of Gurdon

Name: 1901 Topographic Map of Gurdon
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1916
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1916

About this map

The Little Missouri River carves a winding course through Southwest Arkansas, acting as a natural boundary between Clark, Nevada, and Ouachita counties. At the turn of the century, this landscape was defined by the expansion of the timber and transport industries, centered on the major rail junction at Prescott. The St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern R. R. serves as the primary artery for the region, connecting established timber towns like Gurdon, Beirne, and Smithton.

Smaller branch lines, including the Prescott and Northwestern R. R., push westward toward Arcadia, illustrating the reach of the logging industry into the dense creek-fed bottomlands. To the south, numerous rural settlements such as Laneburg, Rosston, and Bluff City dot the terrain of the Georgia and Caney townships. These communities, often located near water sources like Terre Rouge Creek and White Oak Creek, represent the agrarian and early industrial foundations of the Arkansas Piney Woods before later modernization altered the rural character of the region.