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1955 Map of Mount Zirkel

Name: 1955 Topographic Map of Mount Zirkel
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1962
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1962

About this map

Routt National Forest dominates this high-altitude landscape, where the jagged peaks of the Park Range and Sierra Madre converge along the Continental Divide. At the heart of the terrain, Mount Zirkel and Big Agnes Mountain overlook glacial carved features like Mica Basin and Fryingpan Basin. The map reveals the early 20th-century mining footprint at Slayonia and the Slayonia Mine, situated near the confluence of Mica Creek and the North Fork Elk River.

Downstream, the Seedhouse Guard Station serves as a lone administrative landmark in a wilderness defined by a complex network of alpine lakes and headwaters. From the isolated waters of Lake Diana to the clustered Bear Lakes, the drainage patterns illustrate the source of the Elk River system. The presence of numerous unnamed trails connecting high passes like Red Dirt Pass and Ute Pass highlights the area's history as a transit corridor for early forest rangers and prospectors before modern recreation took hold.