1955 Map of Jewel Cave

About this map

Jewel Cave National Monument anchors the northwestern corner of this mid-century survey, detailing the surface topography above the subterranean chambers of Jewel Cave. Set within the Black Hills National Forest, the landscape is defined by deep drainages like Hell Canyon and Lithograph Canyon, punctuated by high-altitude springs such as Lithograph Spring and McKenna Spring. This era reveals a pastoral economy of dispersed ranching, where family-named holdings like Wolf Ranch, Morrison Ranch, and Dunbar Ranch are connected by unimproved roads. Educational and industrial footprints are preserved here, including the remote Bull Flats Sch and small-scale resource extraction sites like the King Tut Mine and Stage Quarry. This document provides a record of the Custer County backcountry before modern road improvements and intensified tourism altered the rural character of the Black Hills.