1978 Map of Lawson

About this map

Lawson and its surrounding agricultural landscape are captured in this late-1970s orthophotoquad, which utilizes rectified aerial imagery to show the physical reality of the Missouri countryside. The town of Lawson sits at a primary rail crossing, with the grid of residential streets and the small commercial core clearly visible against the surrounding patchwork of tilled fields and timbered woodlots. Further southeast, the small settlement of Vibbard is situated near the edge of the survey area, connected by a network of rural roads that follow the section lines of the regional survey system. Unlike a traditional topographic map, this imagery-based document, produced by the Geological Survey in cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service, reveals the precise density of forest cover and the exact footprint of farmsteads across Clay County.