1937 Map of New Home

About this map

The Osage River meanders across this Bates County landscape, defining the rural geography between the townships of Charlotte and New Home. This 1930s era is characterized by a dense network of country schools, such as Virginia Sch and Enterprise Sch, which served the farming communities dispersed across the prairie. The industrial presence of the Black Diamond Mine in the southwest corner of the sheet points to the region's coal mining history, while the Missouri Pacific railroad provides the primary transportation link through Nyhart. Unusual water features like Double S Bend and Big Shoe Bend illustrate the natural winding course of the river before extensive modern channelization, though the Bates County Drainage Ditch No. 1 already shows early 20th-century efforts to manage the river bottomlands for agriculture.