1959 Map of Spirit Mtn. NE

About this map

Black Mountains topography dominates the eastern half of this 1959 survey, where the desert landscape is marked by isolated mining history at sites like the Portland Mine and the enigmatic Lost Cabin. This area of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area showcases the transition from the high peaks of the range down into the Cottonwood Valley. The western edge of the map follows the boundary between Nevada and Arizona as defined by the Colorado River and the southern reaches of Lake Mead. The infrastructure of the era is sparse, consisting primarily of a Jeep Trail winding through the alluvial fans and scattered Wells providing critical water sources in an otherwise arid corridor of the Southwest.