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1929 Map of Kongsberg

Name: 1929 Topographic Map of Kongsberg
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1950
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1950

About this map

The Minneapolis St Paul and Sault Ste Marie railroad defines the central corridor of this prairie landscape, linking the small rail settlements of Ruso and Kongsberg. Surveyed in the mid-1920s, the map reveals a dense network of rural infrastructure, where nearly every township section is anchored by a local schoolhouse, such as Strawberry Sch, Woodruff Sch, and Jesson Sch. This pattern of distributed education highlights the peak of the agricultural settlement era before modern consolidation.

Terrain features like Dogden Butte and Little Butte rise above the surrounding plains, while the southern reaches are dotted with water bodies including Strawberry Lake and Otis Lake. Drainages like Spring Coulee and Bowers Coulee cut through the townships of Brown, Voltaire, and Bjornson, illustrating the natural drainage patterns that dictated early farmstead placement across McHenry and McLean counties.