1892 Map of Savanna

About this map

The Mississippi River creates a complex landscape of braided channels and backwater sloughs in this 1890s reconnaissance of the Illinois and Iowa borderlands. Savanna, Illinois, sits at a critical junction where the riverbank meets the rising bluffs of Carroll County, serving as a hub for both the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad and the Chicago Burlington and Northern Railroad. Across the water, the settlement of Sabula occupies a narrow peninsula on the Iowa side, surrounded by the shifting currents of the main channel and tributary waters. Inland, the topography transitions from the low floodplains of Idens Lake and Dyson Lake to the dissected hills of Jo Daviess County. The drainage patterns of the Plum River and Straddle Creek illustrate the rugged river-bluff environment before modern flood control and bridge systems transformed these crossings.