1951 Map of Pathfinder Reservoir NW

About this map

Pathfinder National Wildlife Refuge encompasses a significant portion of this landscape, established as part of the broader development of the Missouri River Basin. The shoreline of Pathfinder Reservoir is the dominant geographic feature, creating a complex network of bays and promontories such as Bishop Point, Woolf Point, and Sand Creek Point. The high desert terrain is defined by dramatic geological formations, most notably the towering Pathfinder Mountain and the expansive Granite Ridge. Straddling the border of Natrona and Carbon Counties, the area shows a distinct contrast between the vast water storage of the reservoir and the arid, drainage-fed valleys like that of Arkansas Creek. The 1951 field data, updated with 1980 aerial revisions, provides an essential record of the shoreline and land use before late-20th-century shifts in the Wyoming backcountry.