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1965 Map of Stratton Reservoir

Name: 1965 Topographic Map of Stratton Reservoir
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1969
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1969

About this map

First Creek Community Center serves as a lone social anchor in this 1965 survey of the northern Missouri River Basin plains. The landscape is defined by the extensive management of water through a network of catchments and basins including Skull Reservoir, King Reservoir, and Salene Reservoir. These features, along with the First Creek Reservoir and its spillway, illustrate the engineering efforts required to sustain ranching and agriculture across the Sun Prairie Flats.

Ephemeral drainages such as Second Creek, Third Creek, and Telegraph Creek wind through the terrain, occasionally feeding into depressions like Dry Lake. The distribution of named reservoirs, such as Number Twenty Reservoir and McNeil Reservoir, suggests a highly organized system of land and water use typical of the Phillips County prairie during the mid-20th century, before more modern infrastructure changes reached this part of Montana.