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1972 Map of Ironton

Name: 1972 Topographic Map of Ironton
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1985
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1985

About this map

The Ohio River corridor serves as the industrial and social spine of this 1972 survey, anchoring the city of Ironton against a landscape of steep hollows and ridges. Along the river's banks, the infrastructure of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Norfolk and Western Railway supports a dense network of neighborhoods including Coal Grove, Raceland, and Russell. The presence of numerous institutions like St Marys Ch, the Quinn Chapel, and Woodland Cemetery reflects the deep-rooted community history of Lawrence County, Ohio, and Boyd County, Kentucky.

North of the river, the Elizabeth Wayne National Forest dominates the terrain, where narrow valleys such as Toad Hollow and Irish Hollow are interspersed with industrial signatures like the Cecil Mines and various Strip Mines. This mix of heavy industry and natural recreation is exemplified by the Vesuvius Recreation Area and Lake Vesuvius in the northeast, illustrating how the region's 19th-century iron heritage transitioned into a mid-20th-century landscape of forestry and outdoor leisure.