Loading map...

1953 Map of Parnell

Name: 1953 Topographic Map of Parnell
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1955
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1955

About this map

Lake Cumberland dominates the northwestern reaches of this mid-century Wayne County landscape, its rising waters shaping the shoreline around Big Island and Ramsey Island. The topography reflects a transition from the winding valleys of Beaver Creek and Otter Creek to the high elevations of Magalton Mtn and Pilot Mtn. This era shows a distributed rural society defined by small crossroads like Parnell, Zula, and Slat, each tied together by a dense network of country schools and churches.

Genealogists will find significant detail in the placement of the Old Glory Sch, Stop Sch, and Shearer Valley Ch, which served these upland communities before modernization. The map also records the early industrial footprint of the region, specifically marking Oil Wells and an Oil Well near the meandering Wait Creek, indicating the local extraction history that once hummed beneath the ridges of Shearer Ridge and Turkey Valley.