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1939 Map of Keo

Name: 1939 Topographic Map of Keo
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1939
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1939

About this map

Plum Bayou snakes through this alluvial landscape, leaving behind a series of oxbow lakes and ponds that define the local geography just before the onset of World War II. The settlement of Keo serves as a focal point along the St Louis Southwestern Railway, while the smaller community of Wampoo sits further south. The map reveals a deeply established rural social fabric, evidenced by a high density of country churches including Cherry Hill Ch, Macedonia Chapel, and Paradise Ch, alongside local education centers like Wall Sch.

Large meanders of the Arkansas River and ancient cutoffs such as Horseshoe Lake and Clear Lake dominate the terrain, which is protected by an extensive Levee system. This 1939 survey, supported by the Works Projects Administration, documents a period when the river-and-rail economy still dictated the placement of schools and crossroads, before modern agricultural mechanization fully reshaped the Arkansas Delta.