Loading map...

1938 Map of Salem

Name: 1938 Topographic Map of Salem
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1938
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1938

About this map

Salem serves as the central hub for this portion of Marion County, where the crossing of three major rail lines—the Baltimore and Ohio, Chicago and Eastern Illinois, and Illinois Central—dictated the local economy. The landscape is dotted with a dense network of rural infrastructure, from the County Infirmary south of town to numerous family-named landmarks like Givens Chapel and Martin Cem.

Surface water management is a defining feature of the era, visible in the Salem Reservoir, C and E I Reservoir, and Centralia Reservoir. These bodies of water, along with named creeks like Skillet Fork and Davidson Creek, carved through the prairie to support steam-era transit and local agriculture. The map also preserves the locations of dozens of country schools, including Apple Ridge Sch and Shriver Sch, which anchored the small farming communities of Alma, Brubaker, and Iuka during the late 1930s.