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1900 Map of Oswego

Name: 1900 Topographic Map of Oswego
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1948
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1948

About this map

Fort Ontario stands prominently at the mouth of the river, anchoring the city of Oswego during a period of significant industrial and maritime activity along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. This 1898 survey shows a landscape defined by its complex transportation network, where the Rome Watertown and Ogdensburg railroad and the Electric Railroad facilitated trade and movement between growing lakeside hubs.

Further west, the jagged coastline around Little Sodus Bay and Blind Sodus Bay reveals the importance of natural harbors to local commerce and the settlement of Fairhaven. Inland, the map documents a series of rural hamlets such as Sterling Valley, Martville, and Hannibal Center, connected by the Lehigh Valley and the New York Central and Hudson River lines. The terrain is a mosaic of marshes like Mud Pond and gentle elevations such as Juniper Hill, illustrating the late-nineteenth-century transition from wild wetlands to an established agricultural and rail-oriented economy.