1951 Map of Seward A-8

About this map

The Harding Ice Field dominates the high-altitude landscape of this 1951 survey, serving as the source for several massive glacial systems in the southern Kenai Mountains. This map documents the complex glacial geography of the era, where the Lowell Glacier and Bear Glacier flow outward from the ice field's edge, marked by numerous crevasses and dramatic elevation changes. In the northeast corner, the Resurrection River basin provides a corridor for several smaller tributaries, including Cottonwood Creek and Placer Creek, before they exit the Chugach National Forest. The western half of the sheet is largely defined by the Kenai National Moose Range, illustrating the early 1950s boundaries of this protected wilderness. Because the topography was mapped primarily from 1950 aerial photographs, it offers a precise record of glacial extents and drainage patterns prior to later twentieth-century environmental shifts.