Loading map...

1954 Map of New Lake

Name: 1954 Topographic Map of New Lake
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1986
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1986

About this map

New Lake dominates this coastal North Carolina landscape, where the shifting boundaries of Tyrrell and Hyde counties meet amidst a complex network of man-made waterways. Originally surveyed in 1951, the map reveals an environment defined by reclamation and drainage efforts, visible in the straight lines of the Long Ridge Canal, Dunbar Canal, and the Squyars Canal. These features, along with the Old State Canal, illustrate the long history of attempting to manage the wetlands surrounding the lake.

Evidence of former human activity is sparse but significant, marked by several Ruins along the eastern shore of the lake and near the New Lake Fork. The terrain is largely defined by the Southwest Fork and the low-lying reaches of the Alligator River watershed. While updated in the 1980s with aerial photography, the map preserves the mid-century hydrological patterns of this isolated region before modern environmental changes.