Loading map...

2002 Map of Payne Lake

Name: 2002 Topographic Map of Payne Lake
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 2003
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 2003

About this map

Payne Lake serves as a central landmark in this 2002 revision of the West Alabama landscape, situated along the county line where Hale Co meets Bibb Co. The region is defined by its deep integration into the Talladega National Forest and the Oakmulgee Wildlife Management Area, where a dense network of drainage systems like West Elliotts Creek and South Sandy Creek carve through the timberland. For local historians, the presence of Pine Flat MBC Cem and Pisgah Cem provides essential genealogical markers in an area otherwise dominated by forest management and conservation efforts.

Industrial and recreational activities coexist here, indicated by the Gravel Pit near Elliotts Creek and the established Payne Lake Nature Trail. Small pockets of settlement like Keeton Corner in the northeast represent the sparse but persistent human footprint in this protected corridor. The map illustrates the careful balance of 21st-century conservation and traditional land use at the turn of the millennium.