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1937 Map of Thompson Falls

Name: 1937 Topographic Map of Thompson Falls
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1949
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1949

About this map

Thompson Falls serves as the focal point of this Northwest Montana landscape, situated along the Northern Pacific Line and the Pacific Highway. The Clark Fork valley is the primary corridor for transportation and settlement, connecting the communities of Belknap, Woodlin, and Eddy. North of the river, the terrain rises sharply into the Cabinet Mountains, where a network of fire lookouts and ranger facilities like Bend Ranger Sta and Mt Headley monitor the dense forest.

Isolated mountain schools such as Silver Butte Fisher Sch and Austin Sch suggest the presence of remote homesteading families in the early 1930s. The mapping captures a transition in backcountry travel, where established routes like Himes Pass and Silver Butte Pass cross high divides between the Fisher River and Thompson River drainages. Numerous alpine water bodies, including the Miller Lakes and Twin Lakes, dot the high basins, illustrating the complex hydrology of the Cabinet National Forest before modern development altered these remote drainages.