Loading map...

1986 Map of McCarty Lake

Name: 1986 Topographic Map of McCarty Lake
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1986
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1986

About this map

McCarty Lake and the surrounding Garden County landscape appear here as a complex network of ephemeral waters and named valleys in the mid-1980s. The terrain is defined by a distinct orientation of landforms, with drainages like Hog Valley and Tree Claim Valley cutting through the sandy elevations. The distribution of water bodies, including the centrally located Clark Lake and the southern H Lotspeich Lake, suggests a high water table characteristic of this Nebraska Sandhills region, where many lakes rely on groundwater seepage.

Industrial and agricultural signatures are minimal on this provisional survey, which focuses on the natural topography and family-named landmarks. Features such as Wild Horse Flats and Windmill Valley indicate a legacy of ranching and livestock management. This era of mapping captures the area before modern shifts in land use, preserving the locations of smaller basins like Jerry Lake and Jack Lake that are integral to local genealogy and land tenure history.