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2020 Map of McDougal

Name: 2020 Topographic Map of McDougal
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 2020
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 2020

About this map

McDougal and the surrounding borderlands of Clay County, Arkansas, are defined by a sophisticated system of agricultural drainage that transformed the Mississippi Embayment landscape. The map reveals the intricate network of the Black River and Big Cane Cr, which are supplemented by numerous engineered waterways such as Cane Creek Ditch and Ditch Number 17. These ditches represent a massive local effort to reclaim the fertile bottomlands for farming, creating a distinctive grid of fields and county roads that replace the natural wetlands.

Small settlements like Hickoria and Bunker Hill anchor the rural landscape, connected by a network of local thoroughfares including Clay Co Road 304 and the descriptive Tram Rd. The proximity to the Missouri border is a constant presence, with the survey line running just north of the Big Cane Cr marshlands. For those tracing the evolution of Northeast Arkansas, this map provides a clear record of how the land was managed and settled into the 21st century.