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1956 Map of Kalkaska

Name: 1956 Topographic Map of Kalkaska
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1973
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1973

About this map

The village of Kalkaska serves as the primary hub of this northern Michigan landscape, situated at the junction of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Boardman River. The mid-century geography reveals a dense network of rural infrastructure, including numerous schoolhouses like Tyler Sch and the Maple Grove Sch, which was already noted as abandoned by the mid-1950s. The terrain is characterized by its glacial hydrology, featuring complex clusters of water bodies such as Twenty-eight Lakes and the headwaters of the Little Rapid River.

Social and religious centers are scattered throughout the townships, from Excelsior Ch in the northeast to the East Boardman Ch further south. The expansive Au Sable State Forest dominates much of the eastern and southern portions of the quadrangle, where the Garfield Lookout Tower stands as a sentinel over the timberlands. Small settlements such as Smithville, Sigma, and Sharon provide evidence of the localized community structure that defined the region before modern consolidation.