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1939 Map of Onward

Name: 1939 Topographic Map of Onward
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1954
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1954

About this map

The delta lowlands of Sharkey, Issaquena, and Warren Counties appear here as a complex network of waterways and early 20th-century rail infrastructure. Settled along the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley railroad, small trackside communities like Onward, Valley Park, and Smedes serve as the primary hubs in an area dominated by river movement. The landscape is defined by the winding course of the Yazoo River and the sweeping curve of Eagle Lake, alongside evidence of ancient habitation at several sites marked Indian Mound.

Industry and flood control efforts are visible through the inclusion of a Lumber Yard at Valley Park and sections of Abandoned Levee and those noted as Under Construction. The map captures the transitional period of the Mississippi Delta when river-adjacent settlements like Haynes Bluff and Floweree relied heavily on the rail lines for transport through the seasonally wet terrain of Cypress Bayou and Steele Bayou.