1918 Map of Heart Butte

About this map

The Blackfeet Indian Reservation dominates the northern half of this landscape, where the prairie begins its dramatic ascent into the Continental Divide. Surveyed between 1907 and 1914, the map documents a transition from the plains settlements of Family and Piegan to the high peaks of the Lewis and Clark National Forest. Water management is a central theme of the era, seen in the presence of the Birch Creek Dam and Swift Reservoir, which capture runoff from the mountains to support the ranching and farming communities below. Educational life on the frontier is preserved through the locations of rural schoolhouses such as Fish Lake School, Terry School, and Jensen School. To the west, the topography turns vertical at Feather Woman Mtn and Mt Patrick Gass, marking the boundary of the rugged Sawtooth Ridge.