Loading map...

1955 Map of Manhattan

Name: 1955 Topographic Map of Manhattan
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1958
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1958

About this map

The Kansas State College campus serves as the central anchor for this mid-1950s survey of Manhattan, showcasing a period of significant post-war development in Riley County. The city layout is clearly defined, with Memorial Stadium, St Marys Hospital, and the downtown Courthouse providing a glimpse into the civic infrastructure of the era. To the north, the Big Blue River meanders toward its confluence with the Kansas River, passing through the fertile river valley near Rocky Ford and Moehlman Bottoms.

Rural life is evidenced by a dense network of one-room schoolhouses and named terrain features, such as Hunters Island School and Bluemont Hill. Industrial and transit corridors are marked by the Union Pacific and Chicago Rock Island and Pacific railroads, which parallel the riverbanks. This record is particularly valuable for its detail of the landscape prior to the completion of the Tuttle Creek Dam, which fundamentally altered the hydrology of the Big Blue River basin shortly after this survey was finalized.