Loading map...

1893 Map of Sandisfield

Name: 1893 Topographic Map of Sandisfield
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1893
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1893

About this map

The highlands of the Berkshire region and northern Litchfield County are defined by a network of steep hills and narrow river valleys as they appeared in the late nineteenth century. The Farmington River carves a deep path southward, serving as the primary corridor for settlements like New Boston and Colebrook River. Large bodies of water, including the prominent Otis Reservoir and Lake Garfield, anchor the surrounding townships of Sandisfield, Otis, and Monterey.

The landscape is dotted with several family-named peaks and small hamlets, such as Montville and South Sandisfield, that illustrate a rural economy built around the local waterways. The map preserves the 1886 surveying work of W.H. Lovell and Willard D. Johnson, showing the scattered placement of farmsteads and schoolhouses before twentieth-century reforestation and infrastructure changes altered the region's character.