1894 Map of Meridian

About this map

Bosque River and Leon River define the drainage of this late-nineteenth-century landscape, where early Texas settlements were beginning to cluster around new rail corridors. The Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad cuts through the eastern half of the sheet, connecting Meridian and Clifton, while the Texas Central Railroad serves the northwest near Iredell. These iron veins provided the primary economic links for a region otherwise characterized by a series of prominent elevations like Sugar Loaf Mountain, Lone Mountain, and Pilot Knob. Local history is preserved in the location of crossroads such as Cranfills Gap, Norse, and the family-named Jonesborough. The topography, surveyed by H.S. Wallace, reveals the dissected limestone plateaus and gaps that shaped early travel and ranching before the modernization of the road network.