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1906 Map of Silver Lake

Name: 1906 Topographic Map of Silver Lake
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1932
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1932

About this map

The Fox River snakes through the western edge of this landscape, a region defined at the turn of the century by its glacial lake basins and two major rail corridors. The Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad cuts across the northern section, connecting rural hubs like Kansasville and Union Grove. To the south, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad serves a cluster of water-focused communities, including Silver Lake, Salem, and Bristol.

This survey reveals a transition from the river-fed lands of Wheatland to the marshy, lake-dotted interior of Salem and Brighton. Smaller settlements like New Munster and Yorkville appear as compact village centers before the expansion of modern road networks. For those tracing local genealogy or land use, the map captures a specific era when rail travel dictated the growth of towns around recreational and agricultural resources like Eagle Lake and Camp Lake.