Loading map...

1971 Map of Merino

Name: 1971 Topographic Map of Merino
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1984
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1984

About this map

The town of Merino serves as the focal point for this Northeastern Colorado landscape, situated at the intersection of the South Platte River and the Union Pacific railroad. The geography is defined by a complex network of late 19th and early 20th-century irrigation systems, including the Pawnee Ditch, Company Ditch, and Davis Brothers Ditch, which redirect water from the river to the surrounding agricultural plains.

South of the river, the massive Prewitt Reservoir dominates the terrain, marking the boundary between Logan and Washington counties. This water management infrastructure, including the Prewitt Outlet Canal, transformed the arid Sand Hills into a productive farming district. The map captures this sophisticated hydraulic landscape at a time when the region's economy was deeply intertwined with both the river's flow and the transcontinental rail traffic.