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1919 Map of Harlan

Name: 1919 Topographic Map of Harlan
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1942
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1942

About this map

Harlan serves as the focal point of this 1916 survey, situated at the confluence of the Cumberland River, Poor Fork, and Martins Fork. The landscape is defined by the high ridges of Pine Mountain and Black Mountain, which dictated the early 20th-century development of the region. The L. & N. R. R. follows the river valleys, connecting coal-town settlements like Kitts, Coxton, and White Star to the wider world.

Remote hollows and mountain spurs reveal the scattered nature of local infrastructure, from School No 1 on Straight Creek to the Pine Branch School on the Little Black Mountain slopes. Family names and local geography are deeply intertwined, visible in features like Jackson Mill Creek, Saylor Branch, and Grays Knob. The presence of an Incline and the English Spur near Rosspoint indicates the industrial intensity of the era's timber and mining operations within the narrow Appalachian valleys.