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1912 Map of Morris

Name: 1912 Topographic Map of Morris
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1912
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1912

About this map

The railroad junction at Morris serves as the focal point of this West Central Minnesota landscape, where three major rail lines converge near the banks of the Pomme De Terre Lakes. The town’s role as an educational and industrial hub is clear, featuring the State Agricultural School and the North Star Mill along the river. The surrounding prairie is meticulously organized into a grid of school districts, from School No 36 in the north to School No 23 near Hancock in the south, illustrating the dense network of rural education at the time.

Glacial geography dominates the eastern half of the map, characterized by a string of north-south water bodies including Long Lake, Lake Charlotte, and Swan Lake. These lakes are flanked by early community centers like Swan Lake Church and Scandia Church, which anchored the townships of Swan Lake and Framnas. The intricate detail of the Northern Pacific RR Little Falls and Dakota Branch and the Great Northern RR Browns Valley Branch highlights the critical importance of rail transport to the region's early 20th-century grain and agricultural economy.