1919 Map of Margie

About this map

The Big Fork River carves a winding path through the northern woods of Koochiching County, where the early 20th-century settlement pattern is defined by the sharp diagonal of the Minnesota and International railroad. Compiled from 1919 data, this sheet documents the remote logging and homesteading landscape as it appeared just after the first wave of intensive drainage efforts. Evidence of this transformation is found in the Judicial Ditch and other man-made waterways cutting across the township lines to manage the wet northern terrain. The confluence of the Sturgeon River and the Big Fork serves as a focal point near the village of Big Falls, while the isolated station at Margie marks the railroad's steady progress through the swampy lowlands of Dinner Creek. Survey lines like the 13th Standard Parallel and the 3rd. Guide Meridian provide the rigid framework for this sparsely settled territory.