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1950 Map of Marathon

Name: 1950 Topographic Map of Marathon
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1964
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1964

About this map

The Tioughnioga River serves as the primary artery for transport and settlement through this Central New York corridor, with the Delaware Lackawanna and Western railroad hugging its western bank. The village of Marathon acts as the central hub where regional roads converge, while smaller hamlets like Messengerville, Killawog, and East Virgil dot the valley floors and higher elevations.

Evidence of established rural life is found in the network of family-named routes such as Butterfield Road and Browntown Road, alongside community landmarks like the Lapeer Church and Snyder Hill Cem. The topography is defined by the contrast between fertile river bottoms and the surrounding heights of Snyder Hill, drained by smaller waterways including Gridley Creek and Hunts Creek. This survey captures the region just before mid-century modernizations shifted the character of these small agricultural and rail-oriented townships.