1954 Map of McGrath B-4

About this map

Lone Mountain dominates the northern terrain of this remote Interior Alaska landscape, rising above a complex network of wetlands and braided waterways. The hydrology of the region is defined by the expansive, shifting channels of the Big River in the west and the Middle Fork Kuskokwim River to the east. These glacial rivers carve through a mosaic of small lakes and marshy lowlands, illustrating the untamed character of the Yukon-Koyukuk region in the mid-1950s. Surveyed via photogrammetric methods from 1953 aerial photography, the map reflects a wilderness devoid of roads or permanent settlements, where the land was shaped almost entirely by seasonal water flow and the geological prominence of isolated peaks like Lone Mountain.