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1938 Map of Mt Gunnison

Name: 1938 Topographic Map of Mt Gunnison
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1968
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1968

About this map

North Fork Gunnison River carves through the heart of this high-country landscape, where the early twentieth-century economies of coal mining and cattle ranching meet. In the western reaches, the industrial nodes of Somerset and Oliver sit along the riverbanks, marking the importance of the valley floor for transportation and resource extraction. The surrounding terrain rises sharply into vast plateaus and mesas, including Coal Creek Mesa and Snowshoe Mesa, which define the region's complex topography.

Remote outposts such as Davenport Ranch and Minnesota Cow Camp provide evidence of the seasonal movements of livestock across the Grand Mesa National Forest. The map documents a network of high-altitude infrastructure, from the Through Line Trail connecting isolated basins to several backcountry shelters like Snowshoe Cabin and Navajo Cabin. At the center of the survey, Mt Gunnison stands as the primary landmark, surrounded by a watershed of creeks including Anthracite Creek and Minnesota Creek that fed the region's developing irrigation reservoirs.