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1952 Map of New Diggings

Name: 1952 Topographic Map of New Diggings
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1954
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1954

About this map

The Galena River carves through the driftless landscape of southwestern Wisconsin, revealing a terrain heavily shaped by a long history of lead and zinc extraction. At the time of this 1952 field check, the region around New Diggings and Benton is a mosaic of active and dormant industrial sites, with numerous Mine Dumps and Inactive Mines dotting the hillsides along the Shullsburg Branch. These operations, including the Blackstone Mine and Mocaby Mine, indicate the primary economic driver of the era.

Beyond the mining pits, the map preserves the social fabric of Lafayette County through its rural infrastructure. Small community centers like White Oak are anchored by the Town Hall, while several country schools such as O'Toole Sch and Silverthorne Sch serve the outlying farmsteads. Local genealogy is well-documented through several burial grounds, including the Masonic Cem and Shawnee Cem, illustrating the deep-rooted settlement patterns established during the nineteenth-century mining boom along the Wisconsin-Illinois state line.