1951 Map of Split Rock NW

About this map

Sweetwater Rocks anchor the northern landscape of this Wyoming terrain, where the high desert floor meets granite outcrops. Surveyed in the early 1950s as part of the Department of the Interior's Missouri River Basin development program, the map illustrates an arid ranching environment reliant on sparse water sources. The Beaton Ditch represents the vital infrastructure of the era, diverting water from the Sweetwater R to sustain the local livestock economy. Multiple forks of Cottonwood Creek—the West Fork, Middle Fork, and East Fork—drain from the southern high ground of the Green Mountains and Owl Hills. This topography is shaped by the transition from the high peaks through Rocky Canyon into the open valley where Crooks Creek and scattered windmills mark the primary human presence on the land.