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1893 Map of Olathe

Name: 1893 Topographic Map of Olathe
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1921
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1921

About this map

The Kansas Missouri Boundary Line serves as a central axis for this 1880s landscape, illustrating the rapid development of the Border Region before the turn of the century. Large plat-like divisions of civil townships such as Aubry and Springhill define the land, while the grid-based growth of Olathe and Paola highlights their roles as vital transport hubs. The map reveals an intricate web of 19th-century steam travel, with the Kansas City Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad and the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad cutting across the prairies.

Waterways like Big Bull Creek and Ten Mile Creek provide the natural drainage for a terrain increasingly dominated by iron rails and small rail-side settlements like Bonita and Ocheltree. The inclusion of New Santa Fe and Hickmans Mills provides a crucial look at the early communities that dotted the edge of the frontier, predating the later suburban expansion of the Kansas City metropolitan area.