1954 Map of Sleetmute A-2

About this map

The Hoholitna River meanders through this interior Alaska landscape, defining a broad valley of wetlands and complex oxbow formations as it appeared in the mid-1950s. The topographic data, compiled by the Army Map Service, illustrates a wilderness largely untouched by permanent settlements or roads at the time of the survey. To the east, the terrain rises into the Door Mountains, where Door Creek drains toward the main river channel. This map represents an era of surveying where land lines were predetermined by the Bureau of Land Management but remained largely unsurveyed on the ground. The lack of man-made infrastructure underscores the reliance on river systems for navigation through the Seward Meridian during this period of aerial photogrammetric mapping.