Loading map...

1899 Map of Silver Creek

Name: 1899 Topographic Map of Silver Creek
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1902
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1902

About this map

Cattaraugus Indian Reservation anchors the southeastern landscape of this late 19th-century survey, where the winding Cattaraugus Creek marks the boundary between Chautauqua and Erie counties. The shoreline of Lake Erie is defined by a dense concentration of transportation infrastructure, as three major rail lines—the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern R. R., the New York Chicago and St. Louis R. R., and the Western New York and Pennsylvania R. R.—run parallel to the coast.

This corridor of steam and steel facilitated the growth of lakeside settlements like Silver Creek, Irving, and Angola. Inland, the terrain rises into the dissected plateaus of Hanover and Perrysburg, where smaller hamlets such as Hanover Center and Smiths Mills appear connected by a burgeoning network of country roads. The map captures the region at a peak of industrial connectivity, just as the railroads had fully integrated these coastal communities into the Great Lakes trade network.