1949 Map of Pence Butte

About this map

Pence Butte stands as the central topographic feature of this high-desert Owyhee County terrain, as surveyed in the late 1940s. The landscape is defined by the drainage systems of Browns Creek and its tributary, the West Fork Browns Creek, which carve deep canyons through the arid plateau. Cultural development is sparse on this 1949 sheet, represented primarily by the unimproved path of Pot Hole Road skirting the eastern edge of the quadrangle. This Department of the Army and USGS collaboration provides a window into a largely undeveloped corner of Idaho just after World War II, when land management and topographic accuracy were being refined through aerial photography and plane-table methods.