1959 Map of Leonard

About this map

The Northern Pacific railroad cuts a diagonal path through this Red River Valley landscape, serving as the industrial spine for the settlement of Leonard. This 1959 planetable survey captures a transition in the eastern North Dakota prairie, where the meandering course of the Maple River in the north contrasts with the rigid grid of townships like Addison and Leonard. Evidence of local industry and community life is visible in features such as the Claypit and rural congregations at Bethel Ch and West Prairie Ch. The topography, mapped with five-foot contour intervals, reveals subtle variations in the land, including a natural Spring located near the railroad tracks. This document records the spatial organization of Cass and Richland counties before later twentieth-century agricultural shifts further consolidated these rural townships.